LIBRARY

Brigham Young Univer^y

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K'
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THE

Jlibes of tl)e S)atnts

REV. S. BARING-GOULD

SIXTEEN VOLUMES
VOLUME THE ELEVENTH

^ ^
 -*:<

FESTIVAL OF THE HOLY ROSARY.

(First Sunday m October.)
From the Vienna Missal.

Oct., Part I.— Front.

 THE

litoesi of tl)e ^ainte

BY THE

REV. S. BARING-GOULD, M.A.

New Edition in i6 Volumes

Revised with Introduction and Additional Lives of

English Martyrs, Cornish and Welsh Saints,

and a full Index to the Entire Work

ILLUSTRATED BY OVER 400 ENGRAVINGS

VOLUME THE ELEVENTH

©ctotier —PART I

iSiiQ(5
LONDON
JOH^ C NMMMO
NEW YORK LONGMANS,
: GREEN, &- CO.
MDCCCXCVIII

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Printed by Bali.antyne. Hanson 6^ Co.
At the Ballantyne Press
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CONTENTS
PAGE
S. Bruno 141
SS. AdauctusandCallis- ,, Burchard, B. of
thene 64 Wiirzburg . . .
354
S. Amnion 64
SS. Andronicus and
comp. . 260
„ Andronicus and SS. Caius and comp. 50
Athanasia 198 ,, Caius and Crispus 61
S. ApoUinarius 118 „ Callisthene and
SS. Apuleius and Mar Adauctus .64
cellus 154 S. Callixtus, Pope 347 .

S. Aurea . . 66 ,, Carpus .... 319

,, Cerbonius . 228
„ Charitina . . . 117
B
„ Colman of Ausuia 326
SS. Bacchus and Sergius 155 ,, Congan .... 325
S. Bavo 13 ,, Cosmas .... 354
SS. Berenice and comp. 63 SS. Crispus and Caius 61
„ Boniface and others 62 S. Cumine . . . 133
S. Briget of Sweden . 182 SS. Cyprian and FeHx 287

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 .

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VI Contents

D PAGE
PACE SS. Gereon and comp. 224 .

S. Demetrius. . . .165 S. Ghislain ,211 . . .

SS. Dionysius and comp. 50 SS. Guardian Angels 14 .

„ Dionysius, or Denys, S. Gummar .... 284

and comp. . . .195
S. Dionysius the Areo-
pagite . . . .190
H
„ Domnina .... 285 S. Hesychius 51
SS. Domnina and comp. 63
J
SS. Januarius and
S. Edward the Con-
comp 321
S. John of Bridlington 248
fessor . . . .327
„ Edwin 292 „ Julia 283
SS. Eleutherius and „ Justina 152
comp 14
„ Eleutherius, Diony- K
sius, and Rusticus 195 Kenny
S. 278
S. Ethelburga . . . 2S1 „ Keyne 178
SS. Eulampius and Eu-
lampia . .225 . .

„ Eutychius and comp. 120

„ Ewalds, the two. 55
S. Leodegar, or Leger 19
.

„ Leudomer ....15
„ Louis Bertrand .213 .

,, Lubentius .... 322

S. Failbhe . . . .134
„ Faith
SS. Faustus and others
132 M
S. Maccallin . . .
139
of Alexandria 50 . .

SS. Marcellus and Apu-

„ Faustus and others
of Cordova .321 .
leius .... 154
and comp 321
Martialis
„ Felix and Cyprian
,,
287
S. Fiech
.

290
S. Maximian ...
54
„ Florentius .... 322
„
,,
Meinulf
Menna ....
. . . 127
52
„ Fortunatus . .
353
Francis Borgia ,, Murdach . . . 130
„ . .
249
„ Francis of Assisi . 68
SS. Fyncana and Fin- N
docha ....324 SS. Nicasius and comp. 258
S. Nicetas 135

S. Galla 125 O
„ Gerard 57 S. Osyth 161

i^i.-
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Contents Vll

PAGE
PAGE S. Serenus .... 16
S. Palladius . . . 156 SS. Sergius and Bacchus 155
„ Pantalus . . . 285 S. Simeon, Prophet 164 .

„ Paulinus of York 230 „ Simpert ....

326
„ Pelagia .... 169
SS. PhilonillaandZenais 257 T
S. Piatus .... I
....
„ Pinitus .... 223 S. Tancha
SS. Tarachus and comp. 260
247
SS. Placidus and comp
120
Probus and comp. 260 S. Thais 167
,,

„ Prosdoce and comp. 63 „ Theophilus of An-

tioch 320
„ ThomasCantilupe . 31
SS. Thyrsus and others 62
S. Quintin of Tours 66 . S. Triduana . . . .180
SS. Quirinus and comp. 258 SS. Two Ewalds ... 55

R W
S. Remigius, B. of S.Wilfrid, B. of York. 292
Rheims .... 2
„ Romana .... 51 Y
SS. Rusticus and comp. 195
S. Ywi 135

Z
S. Savin 203
SS. Scubiculus and SS. Zenais and Philo-
comp 258 nilla 257

VOL. XI.
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Festival of the Holy Rosary {First Sun-

day in Ociober) ...... Frorrtispiece

From the Vieiuia Missal.

Baptism of Clovis by S. Remigius . . to face p. 2

S. Victor of Marseilles {see July 21st) .

„ 60
After the Paintiyjg by GlOV. ANTONIO DE Bazzi
at Siena.

S. Francis of Assisi .... 68

After Cahier.

Marriage of S. Francis to Poverty . „ 80

From a Fresco by GlOTTO in the Lower Church at
Assisi.

S. Francis of Assisi Preaching to the

Birds ,,94
From a Painting by GlOTTO.

S. Meinulf ,,128
After Cahier.

S. Bruno >, 142

After Cahier.

Tailpiece on p. 189
»J<- -*

X List of Illustrations

Festival of the Maternity of the B.V.

Mary {Seco?id Sunday m October) . . to face p. 190

From the Vienna Missal.

S. Denys, supported by two Angels, and

carrying his head a christian ;

Lady, S. Catulla, is holding his

winding-sheet or shroud above, ;

the shroud is being wrapped around

the head 5, i94

After a Miniature in a MS. of the XlVth

Century.

S. Louis Bertrand ,,216

After Cahier,

Tailpiece on p. 256

S. Wilfrid, Bishop of York . . . to face p. 296

From a Drawing by A. Welby Pugin.

S. Wilfrid „ 302

S. Wilfrid Landing „ 304

S. Wilfrid Baptizing » 312

Funeral of S. Edward the Confessor .

„ 344
From the Bayeux Tapestry, Xllth Century.

S. Donatian, Bishop of Rheims. . .

„ 352
After Cahier.

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^ *

Lives of the Saints

October i.

S. PlATUS, P.M. at Scclin, near Lille, circ. a.d. 287.

SS. Verissima, Maxima and Julia, MM. at Lisbon : circ.

A.D. 304.
SS. Priscus, Crescentius, Evagrius, and Others, MM. at
Tovti, hi Mocsia.
S. Germ an A, V.M. at Bar-snr-Azibe; about ^th cent.
S. Remedius, C. at Trent; sth cent.
S. Remigius, B. oJ Rlieims; circ. a.d. 532.
S. WuLGis, P.C. at Fcrte-Milon, near Soissons; 6th cent.
S. Bavo, C. at Ghent; circ. a.d. 654.
SS. Michael and his Companion.s, Mks. MM. at Sebastopol;
circ. A.D. 788.

S. PIATUS, P.M.

(about a.d. 287.)

[Roman Martyrology. Corbel Kalendar of 8th cent. Usuardus. The

loth cent.Kalendar of S. Maximin at Treves Galhcan and Belgian ;

Martyrologies. Hereford Kalendar, that of York as S. Plato. Au-

thority : —the late fabulous Acts.]

AINT PIATUS, it is pretended, was a native of

Beneventum, who went to Gaul with S. Diony-
sius of Paris, and preached in the region near
Lille and Toumay. He was attacked by the
barbarians and killed.
The body was found by S. Eligius at Seclin where he
was martyred, and translated in the 9th century to S. Omer,
thence to Chartres, and then to Tournay. The relics were
shoAATi in 1 143 at SecHn ; the Chartres people, however,
VOL. XI. I

j, ^
 2 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. i

showed the entire body in their cathedral, and disputed its

translation from Chartres to Tournay. Each entire body
has estabUshed its authenticity by miracles ; that at Chartres,
however, disappeared at the Revolution.

S. REMIGIUS, B. OF RHEIMS.
(about a.d. 532.)

[Corbei Kalendar of the 8th cent.Gallican and Roman Martyro-

logies. Sarum, York, and Hereford Kalendars ; Anglican Reformed
Kalendar. An ancient Life of S. Remigius existed before the 9th cent.,
but was lost then Hincmar of Rheims speaks of it as having existed
;

within the memory of old men ; he sought in vain to recover it. A

compendium of it,made by Egidius of Rheims, 565 590, and a —
metrical version by Venantius Fortunatus, still exist. Hincmar wrote
another Life, based on the verses of Fortunatus, and all the legendary

matter he could rake together ; it is of no value. This again was used

by Flodoard in the loth cent.]

Remigius was born at Laon of noble parents, Emilius

S.

and His mother Cylinia occurs in the Gallican and

Cylinia.
the Roman Martyrologies, as a saint, on October 21, and the
translation of her relics is noted in some martyrologies on
April 5. The brother of S. Remigius was S. Principius,
Bishop of Soissons, the father of S. Lupus. His nurse in
infancy was Balsamia, venerated as a saint in the Church of
Rheims. Remigius was born about the year 435, and was
ordained about a.d. 457, when elected, at the age of twenty-
two, to the bishopric of Rheims, rendered vacant by the death
of Bennadius. A singular and picturesque incident led to
his election. He was in the great church at Rheims when
the clergy and people were assembled to choose a bishop,
when a ray of sun, smiting through a small clerestory wn-
dow, fell on and illumined his head. In the dark church,

* -^
Oct. I.
 ;

the irradiated, handsome young noble shone out

face of the
on the people marked by God for their future
as though
pastor. He was chosen by acclamation, and notwithstanding
the impediment of his being under the canonical age, was
ordained Archbishop of Rheims.
A letter of Sidonius ApoUinaris to the saint has been pre-
served, in which the eloquence of Remigius is commended.
Sidonius was an accomplished professional flatterer, but his
description of the abilities of Remigius is less to be mis-
trusted, as there was nothing to be got by lauding him to
the skies. " Some one from my part of the world had occa-
sion to go from Auvergne into Belgic Gaul ; what his objects
were know not, nor do I care, for the matter of that the
I ;

man I knew however. He halted on his way at Rheims,

and found means, when there, of procuring, I do not know
whether by purchase or present, with or without your con-
sent, from your secretary or librarian, a voluminous manu-

script of your sermons. On his return here, proud of what

he had got, though he had at first bought them for the pur-
pose of seUing them, like a good citizen, instead of doing
that, he made me a present of them. All those who have
read them, myself included;, having obtained rich fruit from
the study of them, have taken pains to learn the greater
part of them by heart, and to copy them out. Every one is

agreed that at the present day few men are capable of com-
posing such sermons as these. Indeed, it would be difficult
to findone who united such skill in disposition of matter,
and choice of expression and arrangement of words. Add
to this the appositeness of the illustrations, the authority of
the testimonies, the propriety of the epithets, the urbanity
of the figures, the force of argument, weightiness of thought,
flow of words, and flash of conclusion. The structure is

strong and sure, all the members of the sentences are united
elegantly, the style is flowing, polished, and well arranged

4( 4i
 4 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. i.

never does one come across those unhappy stiffnesses or

feeblenesses which tease the tongue of the reader, and those
rough words, which can only be pronounced by rolling them
along the palate, are avoided. The language glides along to
the end with ease, giving the same pleasurable sensation as
when the nail is drawn over a crystal or cornelian, without
striking a roughness, or catching in a flaw.
" What shall I say in conclusion ? I know no living
orator whom you do not easily surpass, and leave far behind.
I almost expect, my Lord Bishop, that you are proud of your
rich, ineffable eloquence. But be the splendour of your
talents as writer or virtues as prelate what it may, I pray
you do not disdain us, for though I may not be a great
writer, I know how to praise what is well written. Do not
then, for the future, shrink from exposing your writings to
the judgment of critics when you know that they run no
danger of mordant criticism or severe reproach. If you will

not consent voluntarily to fertilize our barrenness, we know

how to set men on them to rob your
the watch, and suborn
portfolio then, finding yourself plundered, you will per-
;

haps be sensible of the robbery, if you will not now pay

attention to our prayers and the pleasure of being of use to
others."
S. Remigius, as Gregory of Tours tells us, " was a man
of great knowledge, imbued with love of rhetorical studies,
and so illustrious for his sanctity, as to equal S. Silvester."

He is described as having been very tall, seven feet in

height, with an open face, very aquiline nose, a thick, tawny
beard, a slow and stately walk. Many miracles are related
of him, but the authority for them is not very satisfactory, as
we have not the original life of S. Remigius, and we cannot
tell how far they are later legends.
A noble damsel of Toulouse, possessed with a devil, was
taken by her parents to the tomb of the apostles Peter and

^ i{i
 Oct I.J
-S". Remigius. 5

Paul, at Rome, to be cured. But no amount of prayers

were of the slightest effect. Then the devil was adjured to
tellthem wlio alone could expel him. He answered that
none but Remigius could cast him out. Then, says Fortu-
natus, the parents took the damsel to that blessed one,^ and
he cast the devil out. Hincmar of Rheims, writing three
hundred years after Fortunatus, improved the story. The
parents took the damsel from the tomb of the apostles to
S. Benedict, but he also failed to cast out the devil, and sent
the maiden to S. Remigius, as the only saint who was able
to achieve this work. Hincmar saw in the brief life of For-
tunatus, that the maiden was taken to "that Blessed One
(Benedictus)," meaning Remigius, and he used the occasion
to expand the story into a pilgrimage to S. Benedict, further
to enhance the supremacy of the virtue and glory of S. Re-
migius. In order to carry out this fable, at the birth of
which we are present, so to speak, a letter from S. Benedict
to S. Remigius on the topic was forged, probably in the
nth century.^
On another occasion a tremendous conflagration broke
out in Rheims. S. Remigius came to the rescue when more
than half the city was in flames.He went before the raging
fire and made the sign of the cross; the flames retreated,
he advanced, and continued making the sign, and the fire
backed before him step by step, till he drove it through a
gate. Then he ordered the gate to be walled up, and forbade
any one ever opening it again. Many years after, the owner
of the adjoining house, wanting an ash-pit, knocked a hole
in the wall, that he might shoot his rubbish through it. In-
stantly out burst the demon of the conflagration and killed
the man, his wife, children, and servants.
'
"Tunc parentes ejus ipsius benedicti . . . sufiragati," &c.
Another biographer has further improved the story. When the devil came out of
^

the damsel's mouth, it cried " Be not elate at thy merits, O Remigius 1 am uot cast
: I

out by thy virtue, but by the humility of Benedict."

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>$l -^
^

6 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. i.

In 496, the Allemanni, a Germanic confederation, who

had for some time been assaihng the Roman Empire on the
banks of the Rhine or the frontier of Switzerland, crossed
the river, and invaded the settlements of the Franks on the
left bank. Clovis went to the aid of his allies, and attacked
the Allemanni at Tolbiac, the modern Ziilpich, near Diiren,
between Aix and Cologne. The battle was going ill the ;

Franks were wavering, and Clovis was anxious. Before

setting out he had, according to Fredegar, promised his

wife, S. Clothild, to turn Christian if he came off victorious.

Other chroniclers say that Aurelian, Duke of Melun, seeing

the battle in danger of being lost, said to Clovis, " My lord
King, believe only on the Lord of Heaven, whom the Queen,
my mistress, preacheth." Clovis cried out with emotion,
" Christ Jesus ! Thou whom my Queen Clothild calleth the
Son of the God, I have invoked my own gods, and
living
they have withdrawn from me; I believe that they have no
power, since they aid not those who call upon them. Thee,
very God and Lord, I invoke ; Thou give me victory over
if

my foes, if I find in Thee the power that the people pro-

claim of Thee, I will believe in Thee, and will be baptized
in Thy name." The tide of battle turned: the Franks
recovered confidence and courage ; and the Allemanni,
beaten, and seeing their king slain, surrendered themselves
to Clovis, saying, " Cease, of thy grace, to cause any more
people to perish, for we are thine."
On the return of Clovis, Clothild, fearing lest he should
forget his victory and promise, " secretly sent," says Gregory
of Tours, " to S. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, and prayed
him to penetrate the king's heart with the words of salva-
tion."

S. Remigius hastened to fulfil the desires of the Queen.

" I will listen to thee, most holy father," said Clovis, " wil-

lingly; but there is a difficulty. The people that follow me

* ^

Oct. I.] S'. Remignis. 7

will not give up their gods. But I am about to assemble

them, and will speak to them according to thy word."
The king found the people more docile or better prepared
than he had represented to the bishop. Even before he
opened his mouth the greater part of those present cried
out, " We abjure the mortal gods \ we are ready to follow
the immortal God whom Remigius preacheth." About three
thousand Frankish warriors, however, persisted in their in-
tention of remaining pagans, and deserting Clovis, betook
themselves to Ragnacar, the Frankish king ot Cambrai.
As soon as S. Remigius was informed of the good disposi-
tion on the part of king and people, he fixed on Easter eve
of that year (496) for the ceremony of the baptism. The
description of it is given us by Hincmar in his Life of his
illustrious predecessor. " The bishop," says he, " went in
search of the king at early morning to his bed-chamber,
in order that, taking him at the moment of freedom from
secular cares, he might more freely communicate to him the
mysteries of the holy Word. The king's chamberlains re-
ceive him with great respect, and the king runs forward to
meet him. Thereupon they pass together into an oratory
dedicated to S. Peter, chief of the apostles, and adjoining
the king's apartment. When the bishop, the king, and the
queen had taken their places on the seats prepared for them,
and admission had been given to some clerks and also to
some friends and household servants of the king, the vener-
able bishop began his instructions on the subject of salvation.
Meanwhile, preparations are being made along the road from
the palace to the baptistery ; curtains and valuable stuffs are

hung up ; the houses on both sides of the street are dressed

out ; the baptistery is sprinkled with balm and all manner
of perfume. The procession moves from the palace the ;

clergy lead the way with the holy gospels, the cross, and
the banners, singing hymns and canticles then comes the ;
 bishop, leading the king by the hand ; after him the queen ;

lastly, the people. On the road it is said that the king asked
the bishop if that were the kingdom of heaven promised
him ? '
No,' answered the prelate, '
but it is the entrance to
the road that leads to it.' When they had reached the bap-
tistery, the priest who bore the consecrated chrism, arrested
by the crowd, could not reach the font, so that the chrism
was wanting for the benediction of the font. Then the holy
pontiff raises his eyes to heaven, and prays in silence with
tears. Immediately, a dove, white as snow, descends, bearing
in his beak a vial full of chrism sent from heaven. It ex-
haled a delicious fragrance, which intoxicated those present
with pleasure. The holy bishop takes the vial, sprinkles the
baptismal water with the chrism, and immediately the dove
disappears. Transported with joy at such a miracle of grace,
the king renounces Satan, all his pomps and works, and

demands baptism. As he bared his head over the fountain

of life, Bend thy head, Sicambrian
'
said the bishop.
!
'

'
Adore what thou hast burned burn what thou hast adored.'
:

After having confessed the symbol of the orthodox faith, the

king was plunged thrice in tlie water of Baptism, in the
name of the holy and indivisible Trinity, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, and the blessed prelate received
and consecrated the king with the divine unction.
" Albofleda and Lantechild, sisters of the king, received
baptism at the same time, as well as three thousand men of
the Frank army, and many women and children."
The first to mention the apparition of the white dove with
the vial of holy chrism, is Hincmar, who died in a.d. 882,
three hundred and fifty years after S. Remigius. Fortunatus,
who wrote an epitome of his life, about a.d. 570, about
thirty-five years after the death of the saint, says nothing
about it. He relates that S. Remigius was wont to feed
sparrows out of his hand, and that at meals they hovered

^ ^
^ lie

Oct. X.]
S. Remigius. 9

round him without the least fear, and perched on his fingers
to peck up the crumbs in his palm. This incident, and
those of the miraculous cure of the girl possessed, and the
extinction of the conflagration of Rheims, are almost the
only events in the episcopal career of S. Remigius which he
records, and all these because they were miraculous. Had
Fortunatus known the story of the dove and the ampulla, he
would certainly not have omitted it. The date of the
formation of the legend was probably the 9th century.^ Gre-
gory of Tours, always eager to narrate marvels, knew nothing
of the miraculous dove and vial of chrism (d. a.d. 594) ;
it first appears in Hincmar's " Life of S. Remigius," based on

popular legend, in Flodoard (d. a.d. 966), and in Almoin of

Fleury (d. a.d. 1008). After that the story became popular
enough.^
The origin of the story is plain enough, it is a reminiscence
of the Celtic legend of the Sangreal which has attached
itself to a saint. " And anon there came in a dove at a
window, and in her bill there seemed a little saucer of gold,
and therewithal there was such a savour as though all the
spicery of the world had beene there and there came ; . . .

a damosell, passing faire and young, and she beare a vessell

of gold betweene her hands, and thereto the king kneeled

'
Not only
are Gregory of Tours and Venantius Fortunatus silent on the matter,
but also Avitus of Vienne, and Pope Anastasius II., who wrote to congratulate
S.
Clovis on his baptism, and who would certainly have noticed the incident had it
occurred. S. Nicetius of Treves, in his letter to Clodoswinda, Q. of the Lombards,
says no word about the miracle, nor does Fredegar, nor the anonymous author of the
Gesta Fraucorum, who wrote in 725. Alcuin, in his Life of S. Vedast, and the anony-
mous author of the shorter Life of S. Vedast, although all these describe the baptism
of Clovis, yet not one alludes to the sacred ampulla and oil. Not only so, but the
Preface to the ancient Gallican mass of S. Remi, although it mentions many of his
miracles, and the baptism of Clovis, says not a word about the miraculous chrism.
^ It is somewhat amusing to read in Ch. Barthelemy's " Annales Hagiologiques de

la France," Versailles, 1863, t. iv. p. 1126, concerning the miracle of the sainte
ampoule " C'est le miracle le plus patent, le plus avere et surtout le mieux prouve
:

qui soit au monde." To help the evidence on a little, he makes Almoin live in the
gth cent, mistaking Almoin of Fleury, who died A.D. 1008, for Almoin of S. Ger-
main, who flourished a.d. 888.
^ ^
lo Lives of the Samts. [oa. i.

devoutly and said his prayers, and so did all that were
there. "^ The ampulla and the sacred oil have since been used
at the coronation of the kings of France. It was broken at
the Revolution, but a fragment of the bottle was preserved
with a drop of oil, and is now in the treasury of the Cathedral
of Rheims.
Three letters of S. Remigius have been preserved, one to
Clovis on the death of his sister Albofleda, another on his
engaging in a war, exhorting him to mercy and care of the
poor, the suffering, and the orphans, and to show kindness
and give release to captives ; the third on ecclesiastical
immunities.
Finding his diocese too large for his supervision, S.

Remigius founded the see of Laon, and appointed to it S.

Genebald, married to his niece. According to Hincmar,
Genebald did not desert his wife, but had by her a son and
daughter after he was raised to the episcopacy. Regretting
this, he sent for S. Remigius, retired into a cell, did penance,
and was then re-instated in his see by S. Remigius. The
saint also founded the sees of Atrebatum, afterwards fixed
at S. Omer, and placed over it S. Vedast, and that of
Cambrai, which was also governed by S. Vedast.
A letter from S. Remigius to S. Falco of Tongern exists.
Falco had ventured to exercise some acts of jurisdiction at

Mouzon on the Meuse. The confines of dioceses were not

accurately marked at that time, and a transgression of limits
was possible through inadvertency. S. Remigius wrote a

bad taste
sharp, fiery letter in to S. Falco. " If your Sanctity

was ignorant of the canons, was indecorous of you to

it

transgress the diocesan limits before learning them. But if

you knew the statutes of the Church, the more serious and
perilous is the kicking aside of decrees of ancient and

' Sir Thomas JNIalory's "Morte d'Arthiire," ed. Wright, 1858, vol. iiu c. 2. See
also the Life of S. Fronto, Oct. 25.
 1

-^

Oct. I.]
'^- Refiiigius. 1

glorious pontiffs, by your folly. Beware, lest in meddling

with other's rights you do not lose your own." Falco had
laeld an ordination at Mouzon. Remigius refused to acknow-
ledge the orders which had been conferred outside the
boundaries of the diocese of Tongern. " I do not wish you

to be ignorant of the fact that I have removed those Levites

and priests from their orders whom you have made against
all order. It did not become me to acknowledge those
whom it did not become you to ordain."
Another of S. Remigius shows him in a more
letter

amiable At the request of Clovis he had ordained one

light.

named Claudius to the priesthood. There was some trifling

canonical irregularity in the matter, but no complaint was
made so long as Clovis lived. But after the death of the
king, Claudius fell into some sin of a grave character —ap-
parently did not pay his debts. S. Remigius was anxious to

deal leniently with him, and instead of permanently excluding

him from his office, put him to penance, and gave him hopes
of ultimate restoration. This highly incensed three bishops,
Heraclius of Paris, Leo of Sens, and Theodosius of Auxerre,
and they wrote to Remigius rebuking him for having or-

dained Claudius, and for treating with such lenity his case
when he had fallen, and required the archbishop to see to
the repayment by Claudius to a certain Celsus of moneys
out of which he had swindled him. Two of these bishops
are in the Roman Martyrology.^
The answer of S. Remigius to these bishops, "bursting
with spite against him," exhibits him as a model of for-

bearance and charity. As to the ordination of Claudius, he

had not been bribed, as the bishops hinted, but had ordained
him on the urgent request of a wise and Catholic king. As
to his fall, the Ninevites when they repented were pardoned,
and the angel of the church of Ephesus was not cast out of

S. Leo on April 22, S. Theodosius on July 17.

^_ _^
 2

*-

1 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. i.

his see, but was exhorted to amendment and repentance.

As to Celsus, to whom Claudius owed money, Remigius
declared himself profoundly ignorant of his whereabouts,
whether alive or dead. Finally :
" You write that I am in
my second childhood,^ sneering at rather than rejoicing
lovingly -with him who is neither accused before you nor
comes in for mercy at your hands."
This letter was probably Avritten in 512.
Two testaments purporting to be by S. Remigius have
been preserved ; the shortest is probably genuine, but that
given by Hincmar is a forgery, composed for the purpose
of securing to the church of Rheims certain estates which it
was pretended that S. Remigius had acquired.
Such iniquitous practices were unfortunately too common
in the Middle Ages. The forged chronicle of Ingulf of
Croyland was composed in order that it might contain
charters to the abbey conveying lands, which were never
really given to the monastery. Some forged testaments of
Durham at
lands exist at the present day, whereby the
monks of Durham claimed the tenure of certain estates in
the county.
Hincmar, who found this will, as well as the story of
the miraculous chrism, discovered also the body of S.

Remigius, and after the invention, solemnly translated it.

The stately Abbey of S. Remi was erected over his shrine.

The bones of the saint were buried, at the Revolution, in
the adjoining garden, and on the restoration of tranquillity
were recovered by the man who had buried them. They are
now in the Abbey of S. Remi at Rheims.

• " Annorum numero me esse scribitis jubileura."

*-
 3

-*

Oct. 1.] ^- Bavo. 1

S. BAVO, C.

(about a.d. 654.)

[Roman, Gallican, and Belgian Martyrologies. York, Sarum, and

Hereford Kalendars. Hrabanus and Wandelbert. Authority a Life:
—
written by an anonymous monk in the 7th or 8th cent. This was versi-
fied by another anonymous monk about A. D. 980 ; and another was
written in the nth cent, by Theodoric, Abbot of S. Trond. A com-
pendium of the Life and Miracles of S. Bavo was written by a third
anonymous writer of the loth cent. The first life is the one on which
most reliance can be placed.]

Aldowin, commonly called Bavo, was Count of Hesbain,

married to the daughter of Count Adilio, and by her became
the father of S. Adeltrude. He lived a careless, merr)' life till

the death of his wife, when he felt her loss so keenly, that
the world and its pleasures became bitter to his taste ; then
in a fit of sorrow he went to S. Amandus and asked him
his advice. Amandus advised him to distribute his goods
among the poor, and build a church and monastery to S.
Peter at Ghent. Wherever Amandus went preaching Bavo
Word of God.
followed, eager to hear the The seed sank
deep into and bare fruit in an
his heart altered life. He
returned to Ghent and became a recluse in the monastery
he had erected there, and there he died in the odour of
sanctit)'.

-*
•J. *
J
4 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.

October 2.

SS. Guardian Angels.

SS. Eleqtherius and Comp. MM. at Nicotnedia; a.d. 303.
S. Leudomer, B. of CluJblons-sur-Marne ; circ. a.d. 585.
S. Serenus, P.C. at Celle, near Chantemerle l circ. a.d. 650.
S. Gerin, M. in Gaul; a.d. 676.
S. Leodegar, B.M. o/Autun; a.d. 678.
S. Theophilus, Mk.C. at Constantinople; middle of %th cent.
S. Beregis, Ab. at Ajtdain in the Ardennes: ith cent.
S. Thomas Cantilupe, B. of Hereford; a.d. 1282.

SS. GUARDIAN ANGELS.

[The festival of the Guardian Angels was first established by Pope
Paul v., in a bull dated 27th Sept., 1508, and was fixed by Pope Cle-
ment X. for the 2nd of October.]

N this day are commemorated those blessed

angels who are given charge by God of Christians.
These angels, " ministering spirits sent forth to
minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation,"^
watch the baptized, protect them against danger, and bear
their souls after death to Paradise.

SS. ELEUTHERIUS AND COMR MM.

(about a.d. 303.)

[Roman Martyrology, the " Martyrologium parvum," Ado, Notker,

and Usuanlus. Authority : — mention in the Martyrologies.]
The palace of Domitian at Nicomedia having caught fire,

the blame was thrown on Eleutherius, a soldier, and some

others, Christians. Some were decapitated, others flung into
the sea, and others burned alive.

* ^
Ij, )J<

Oct. 2.]
'^^ Leudomer. 15

S. LEUDOMER, B.C.

(about a.d. 585.)

[Gallican MartjTologies. By some martyrologists on Sept. 30. At

Chalons on Oct. 2. On that day Saussaye. Authority his Life, sup- : —
posed to have been written by Stephen, abbot of S. Urban, fl. a.d.
925; full of fable.]

S. Leudomer, brother of S. Elaphius, bishop of Chalons-

sur-Manie, succeeded him in that see. They were both
born at Limoges, sons of a certain noble named Leo.
Elaphius was summoned by KingSigebertof Austrasia, from
Limoges to occupy the see of Chalons. He is mentioned by
Gregory of Tours. Leudomer accompanied his brother,
whom he dearly loved, and the brothers gave over their
paternal inheritance at Limoges to the church at Chalons.
Ruinart says that he had read the deed whereby " the
blessed Elasius (Elaphius) the bishop, and his brother the
deacon Leudomir, had made over estates to the church of

S. Stephen, at Chalons."' This donation was made in a.d.

565. On the death of Elaphius, in a.d. 580, Leudomer was

raised to occupy the episcopal throne in his room.
Queen Brunehild is said by the Chalons Breviary to have
sent for him one day to her palace, and finding him a tall,
good-looking fellow, eyed him with kindling glances, and
made an observation to him full of warmth. Leudomer
drew back and stared at her with icy eyes. So frozen was
the glance that when Roger II., Bishop of Chalons, dug up
his predecessor, after the lapse of four hundred and fifty
years, though all the rest of the body of Leudomer was turned

to dust, the glassy eye stared out of the dust heap, with all
the cold indignation wherewith it had repulsed Queen Brune-
hild. The freezing glance seems to have been reserved to
'
Ruinart, in his notes to S. Gregory of Tours, lib v. c. 41 ; it was unquestionably
a mediaeval forgery of a not uncommon kind.

* ^
 6

*-

1 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 2.

one eye.^ This wonderful story is not told by Stephen, the

Abbot, who, however, narrates another sufficiently mar-
vellous anecdote, which the Bollandists ticket as " fabulosa
narratio." The bishop had a field which was cleared of
the fresh-sown corn by birds. He was very indignant, and
going to the field, he '
rdered all the birds to follow him.
The guilty sparrows and blackbirds slunk after him to a
barn. He held the door open and ordered them all to enter,
and they sneaked dejectedly in. Then he shut the door on
them, and left them in the barn to their meditations. Now,
during the night, a labourer got in, and killed and ate one ol

the sparrows. Next morning Leudomer came to the granary

and ordered the birds out, and to be off and not molest
his fields any more. They shook their heads, and looked
sadly at some feathers and a pair of clawed feet on the
floor. Leudomer saw what was the matter in a moment.
He collected the feathers, bones, and claws into a little

heap, prayed, and the heap got up and shook itself into

shape, and flew off pertly twittering with the rest of the
birds.
In French, S. Leudomer is called S. Leumer or Lomer.
His symbol in art is an eye.

S. SERENUS, P.C.

(about a.d. 650.)

[Usuardus, Ado, Greven, and Canisius, in their German Martyro-

logies ; Saussaye, in his Gallican Martyrology, &c. Venerated chiefly
in the diocese of Troyes. Authority :
— a fabulous life by an unknown
writer, late, and full of anachronisms.]

Serenus, says the legend which passes as his biography,

was the son of Adrian and Serena, nobles of Metz. War
' The story is told also by Thomas Cantipratensis, De Apibus, lib. ii. c. 30.

*-
^_ _ >J,

o^j^^j
kS". Serenus. 17

broke out between the Austrasians and Dagobert (a.u. 622

or 623),and Serenus was taken captive and sold to Count
Boso for five sous. This Boso was, perhaps, the son of
Audolen, executed by Clothair in a.d. 626, on the charge
of having dishonoured Queen Sighild.^

Serena, the mother of the boy, learned where he was, and

went with money in her hand to redeem him, but Serenus
refused the proffered freedom, and sent his mother weeping
home to Metz. Boso constituted Serenus his cow-herd, and
the boy taught the cattle to disperse about the woods, but
to assemble at the blast of his horn and follow him home.
As Boso's son went every day to school at Nesle, Serenus
accompanied him for three years and six months, leaving
the cattle to take care of themselves, and every evening on
his return from school he blew his cow-horn, and the cattle

came forth from the green wood, and followed him to their

byres.
But some one told Count Boso that Serenus neglected his
herds he was very angry, and threatened the boy with a
;

whipping if he did not produce all the cattle. Serenus blew

his horn, and when the herds came forth from under the
trees in call none were wanting.
answer to the
The Count being thirsty, he dug the end of his cow-horn
into the ground, and a fountain sprang up at the spot, since
esteemed miraculous.
Then Count Boso allowed the cowherd to leave his

service and build himself a cell in solitude. To decide

where he should settle he flung his goad, and it stuck in a
great oak, and where it stuck there he fixed his abode.
After some years he went to Rome and spent there seven
years. Then an angel appeared to Pope John IV. in a
dream, and bade him ordain Serenus priest, and give him the
relics of SS. Fabian and Sebastian. The Pope obeyed, and
' Fredegar, Chron. c. 54.

VOL. XI. 2
^ 1^
 Serenus departed from Rome a priest, carrying back with
him into Gaul the precious bones of SS. Fabian and Se-
bastian. This must have occurred between the years 640
and 642, when John IV. was Pope. Now as Serenus came
to the river Po, there met him S. EHgius, on his way to
Rome. The holy man, when he ascertained what a treasure
Serenus bore, could not keep his fingers off the little casket^
in which Serenus carried the bones, but stole it and made
off by boat down the Po.
Serenus,when he found that he had been robbed of his
box of bones, fell on his knees and prayed. Then a storm
fell on the ship, and Eligius would have been wrecked, had he

not vowed to restore the rehcs to the rightful owner. They

parted with friendship, and S. Eligius promised on his return
to Noyon to call on Serenus on his way. But after a year
had passed he was on his road back, and though he was
not far from Celle, he neglected to visit Serenus, perhaps
because he feared for himself the temptation of being so
near the holy relics of Fabian and Sebastian. S. Eligius
pushed on, but was punished for his neglect by losing his
sight, and he was obliged to turn back to Celle, and apologize
to the man of God, who very graciously forgave the disrespect
and restored sight to his blinded eyes.
Serenus built a chapel at Celle, near Chantemerle, in
which he placed the relics, and there he spent the rest ot

his days, and and was buried.

died,
Now, apparently, only the head of S. Sebastian had been
given to S. Serenus, for in a.d. 826, the body of this saint
was brought from Rome to Soissons. But when it got within
the territory of Celle, there it stuck and obstinately refused
to move. Crowds assembled, and pulled at the traces, but
not an inch would the car advance. Then it flashed on
some intelligent mind, as an inspiration, that very likely the

' Capsula.

*-
 Oct. 2.]
"S^- Leodegar or Leger. 19

body of S. Sebastian did not like to go on without its head,

which was at Celle, and when the conveyance was turned in
that direction it flew along as though the bones and shrine
weighed no heavier than a feather.
So the head and the body were re-joined and left there.

Now the merits of S. Serenus spread far and wide, and

Queen Bertha, with her two sons, Charlemagne and Pepin,
visited the church, and prayed there for the peace of the
Frank nation. Unfortunately for the story, Bertha died in
A.D. 783, and Pepin died at the age of three in 759. The
biographer implies that their visit took place after the trans-
lation of the body of S. Stephen, in a.d. 826. He goes on
to relate that shortly after, Charles the Great and Pepin
gained a great victory at S. Medard, having invoked the
assistance of Serenus. It is impossible to reconcile this
statement with history.

S. LEODEGAR OR LEGER, B.M.

(a.d. 678.)

[Almost all Latin Martyrologies. Ado, Usuardus, Notker ; Gallican,

German, Sarmn Kalendars. Authorities: i. A Life by an anonymous —
writer of the same date, an eye-witness of part of what he describes.
2. A second Life, by Ursinus, also a contemporary. He seems to have
seen the first Life, but not to have trusted it implicitly, for small dis-
crepancies occur, showing that he had other sources of information which
he preferred. He is fuller on the early Life of S. Leger, but not so
reliable for exact succession of events as the author of the first Life, who
seems to have been a companion of S. Leger. 3. A third Life, later,
from a ALS. at Amorbach, contains few additional details it is founded ;

on the Life of Ursinus. M. Guizot says of the two first Lives *' Nous :

possedons deux vies de Saint Leger .... sans lesquelles I'histoire des
Merovingiens de I'an 660 a I'an 680 nous serait, si non tout a fait in-
connue, du moins a peu pres inintelligible." " Le recit de I'abbe '

"Collection des Memoires relatifs a I'histoire de France." T II p. iig.

^ ,5^
^. ^
20 Lives of the Saints. \qo..i.

Ursin est moins etendu et moins anime que celui du nioine anonyme, le
plus curieux peut-etre, apres le grand ouviage de Gregoire de Tours, des
monuments qui nous sent parvenus sur cette epoque de notre histoire. " '

There are other and later Lives, founded on the earlier ones, which it

is not necessary to notice.]

S. Leodegar, or as he is more commonly called, S. Leger,

was born about the year 616, in the reign of Clothair II., on
the banks of the Rhine, of a stock connected with the
Merovingian reigning princes. His mother's name was
Sigrada ; his aunt, his mother's sister, Bereswintha, was
married to Ethico or Adalric, Duke of Alsatia. The bro-
Warin or Barin, Count of Poitiers, and his
ther of Leger was
uncle Dido was Bishop of Poitiers. At a very early age,
Leger was committed to the care of King Clothair, whose
queen, Radegund, daughter of Berthar of Thuringia, or one
of his other wives, seems to have been a relative of the
saint. Clothair sent the boy to Dido of Poitiers, to be
educated for the Church, and he was ordained deacon at
the age of twenty,and advanced almost immediately to the
office of archdeacon by his uncle. About the year 651,
when he was thirty-five years old, he was made Abbot of
S. Maxentius at Poitiers. His contemporary anonymous
biographer thus describes him at this period :
— " There
shone in him such a blaze of science and firmness, that he
surpassed all his predecessors ; not being ignorant of the
rule of the laws of the world, he was a terrible judge of
seculars, and full of the science of canon law, exhibiting
liimself as an excellent doctor of clerics. Never having
been softened by the pleasures of the flesh, he was rigorous
in his treatment of sinners ; he watched always carefully
at the offices of the Cluircli, was skilful in his reasonings,
prudent in counsel, and shining in discourse."
After having ruled the Abbey of S. Maxentius for six

' " Collection des Mcmoires relatifs a I'histoirc de France." T. II., p. 320.
 1

* ^
0(.t. 2 ]
6'. Leodegar or Leger. 2

years, he was summoned to court by S. Bathild, the queen

regent for the infant Clothair III., who was only five years
old when his father, Clovis II., died (a.d. 656). Bathild had
been a Saxon captive of exquisite beauty, with whom
Clovis II. had fallen in love, and whom he had married.'
She was the holiest and most devout of women. She suc-
ceeded to some part of the authority, to none of the crimes
or ambition, of Brunehild or Fredegund. Her pious muni-
ficence knew no bounds ; remembering her own bondage,
she set apart vast sums for the redemption of captives. Not
a cathedral, not a monastery, but records the splendid dona-
tions of Queen Bathild not farms ; only, but forests, districts,
almost provinces. This was the woman who called to aid
in her councils the holy She raised
abbot of S. Maxentius.
him almost immediately to the great Burgundian bishopric
of Autun. This see had been widowed for two years.
Two rivals fought for its crosier. One killed, or obtained
the assassination of, the other, and for the crime was
deprived of his claim. Thus the way to the episcopal
throne of Autun was cleared for S. Leger, and he was con-
secrated bishop about the year a.d. 660. He at once
entered Autun, supported by the soldiers of Queen Bathild,
and with strong hand quelled the tumults of the people.
" On his arrival, all the enemies of the Church and of the

city were struck with terror, even those who fought with
fury and killed each other ; those whom preaching would
not bring back to concord, justice and terror constrained."'^
S. Leger founded a hospital in Autun, enriched the church
with vessels of gold and silver, adorned the baptistery, trans-
lated the body of S. Symphorian, repaired the city walls,
re-laid the pavement of the Cathedral, gilded the rafters, and
set up a stately portico to the church.
But Leger, though he attended to the wants of his

' See Jan. 26. ^ Anon. i.

^-

22 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 2.

diocese, did not neglect political affairs. He directed the

councils of Queen Bathild, young king took into his
till the
own hand the reins of government, and the queen-mother
was forced to retire into the convent of Chelles.
The death of the young king, Clothair III. (a.d. 670),
was the signal for the breaking out of a fierce contest for
supremacy between two factions in the kingdom. At the
head of one stood Ebroin, mayor of the palace at the head ;

of the other, Leger, Bishop of Autun. Clothair died

childless, leaving two brothers, Childeric and Theodoric.
Of these Theodoric was the elder. Leger and Ebroin had
been at rivalry in the lifetime of Clothair. Leger repre-
sented the domination of the hierarchy over the affairs of the
realm, Ebroin the despotism of the mayor of the palace.
Leger represented the Burgundian interests, Ebroin those of
Austrasia. Before the death of Clothair, Ebroin had per-
suaded the king to drive all the Burgundians from his court,
and to pass an edict that no Burgundian might appear before
the king without a special permission.
On the death of Clothair, Ebroin, instead of summoning
the nobles to consult, relying on his own authority and
power, proceeded to enthrone Theodoric.^ Leger at once
placed himself at the head of the opposite party, and offered
the sovereignty of Burgundy and Neustria to Childeric.
The policy of Ebroin, the depression of the higher nobles,
the elevation of the lower, the subordination of all to the
throne, had him up a host of powerful foes. What
stirred
the higher nobility and some of the bishops called rebellious
tyranny, his partisans held to be high and rigid justice.
Some saw that the policy of Ebroin was the consoHdation of
the kingdom, and S. Praejectus of Auvergne, S. Reolus of
Rheims, S. Agilbert of Paris, and S. Ouen of Rouen, joined
his party. But the great chiefs saw their independence
' The anonymous author of the Life of S. Leger asserts the seniority of Theodoric.

*-
 *
•^

Oct. 2.] ^- Leodegar or Leger.

— 23

and autocracy menaced, and rallied round S. Leger. Ebroin

fell before the fierce onslaught of the Burgundians, who
threatened and sword to all who should support the
fire

mayor of the palace and the elder prince.

Ebroin fled to a church, and clung to the altar. His
house and treasures fell a prey. It was held to be a
splendid effort of Christian virtue, that the saint spared the
life of his rival. He was banished to the monastery of
Luxeuil, compelled to give up his wife, to submit to the
tonsure, and to take the irrevocable vows. Leodegar ruled
supreme, and in the highest episcopal splendour, in his
cathedral city of Autun. If his biographer be right,^ he
assumed even the title of mayor of the palace.
Childeric ordered his elder brother to be brought before
him, and some, thinking to please the young king and
secure his place on the throne, hastily shaved the head of
Theodoric, and invested him with the monastic habit. In
this plight the unfortunate prince was brought before Chil-
deric, who ordered him to be confined in the monastery of
S. Denys, " where," says the anonymous biographer of
S. Leger, " he lived in security till his hair grew again."
The nobles who had carried Childeric to the throne now
insisted on the king issuing edicts confirming the inde-
pendence and privileges of the separate provinces, which had
been menaced by the policy of Ebroin. He consented, but
afterwards seeing that this was a disastrous policy, withdrew
his edicts. As long mayor of
as possible, Leger, acting as
the palace, governed the mind of
young king and the
the
aftairs of state. But a strong, compact body of malcontents
was formed against him, a body favouring the concentrating,
not the disintegrating policy, as that most conducive to the
welfare of the realm.
S. Leger is said to have remonstrated with Childeric for
' Ursinus, a contemporary.

^ _
 *

* —
'
24 Lives of the Saints. [Qcm.

having married his cousin, and this served to alienate

Childeric from him, added to the fact that Leger advocated
a course which obviously enfeebled the crown, and left it a

prey to the dictation of the great nobles. Leger was obliged

to surrender his office of mayor of the palace to Wulfoald.
S. Leger invited the king to celebrate Easter at Autun, a.d.
673. At that time one Hector, a patrician of Marseilles,
came to Autun to make a request of the king, and obtain
the intercession of the bishop. The biographer of S. Leger
calls him a " very prudent man," and only speaks vaguely of
his " certain affair." But the contemporary life of S. Prae-

jectus gives us a fuller account of the matter. S. Praejectus,

Bishop of Auvergne, belonged to the party of Ebroin, and

his biographer shared in the dislike in which Leger was held
by that party. He tells us that Hector had carried off a
young girl of Marseilles, and made her his concubine. Her
mother left some farms in Auvergne to the Church. Hector
claimed them for his concubine. S. Prjejectus opposed
his claim. Then Hector, " an infamous man," says the
biographer of S. Prsejectus, "having associated with him
another, Leodegar, in his crime, came to the king." Strong
suspicions were roused in the king's mind that Leger and
Hector were in conspiracy with others against him. How
far there was such a plot, and it was known to S. Leger, we
cannot decide, but that there was one appears probable.
Leger was restless under his loss of favour, and there was a
large party of nobles which shared his discontent.
The king, on Easter Eve, came to the baptistery of the
Cathedral shouting for Leger, but when he saw the bishop
in the blaze of wax lights, with incense smoking round him
as he blessed the font, he retired awestruck. When the
service was accomplished, Leger went to the king's lodgings,
and high words passed between them. The king raised his
hand with his poignard, and would have killed the bishop,

^ —— i{i
 -*

Oct. 2] S. Leodegar or Leger. 25

but for the interference of the bystanders. Leger retired,

and fearing for his Hfe, fled from Autun. He was over-
taken, and ordered to be imprisoned at Luxeuil. Thus, by
a sudden revokition, the bishop found himself an exile in
the same monastery with his fellow-rival, Ebroin. Hector
and all his followers were put to death. The banishment of
S. Leger was approved by all the bishops of the opposite
faction, and there were canonized saints among them ; so that
it is probable that there were circumstances with regard to a
conspiracy against Childeric which had come to light, and
tended to incriminate him.
But the banishment of S. Leger was of short duration.
Childeric was stabbed while hunting. At the same time two
dukes had withdrawn Leger from Luxeuil, and guarded him
in their castle, waiting for the explosion of the conspiracy,
when he could be put forward again. Ebroin took ad-
vantage of the death of Childeric to escape from Luxeuil.
Like a second Julian, says the old biographer of Leger, he
cast oft his religion, that is, his enforced monastic vows ; his
free locks again flowed, he rejoined his wife. Thromng
himself into Austrasia, he set up a child named Clovis as
the son and successor of Childeric, and assembled about him
all the troops of the Austrasian nobles.
Theodoric III., the second son of Clovis II., brother of
Clothair and Childeric, who had been imprisoned in the
abbey of S. Denys, and tonsured to incapacitate him for the
throne, was brought forth by the party which detested
Ebroin, to act the part of king. Ebroin felt the necessity
of at once cutting off" Leger, his most subtle and dangerous
rival. He therefore detached an army, under two officers,
Diddo and Waimer, Duke of Champagne, to take Autun
and its bishop. When S. Leger saw the walls of his city
surrounded, he brought all the gold and silver plate out of

his palace, on which he had fared with almost royal mag-

-*
*-

26 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.a.

nificence, had it and distributed among

smashed into bits,

the poor, to encourage them to city and his

defend the
person with enthusiasm. Then he went round the walls,
bearing relics, and prayed and genuflected at each gate.
The assault was made, and it became evident that the
town could not hold out. The abbot Meroald was let down
the rampart by a rope, to offer terms. The servants of

Ebroin would accept none. Next day the gates were flaming;
further resistance was impossible. S. Leger ordered the
gates to be opened, and came forth with calm countenance.
He was at once brought before Diddo and Waimer, who
had his eyes put out with instruments of iron. " Many
illustrious men, then present, affirm that he would not allow
his hands to be tied, that no groan escaped his mouth while
his eyes were being torn out, but that he continued singing
psalms and praising God." Bobbo, Bishop of Valence, was
placed over the city, the town was given up to spoil, and
then the army marched on to Lyons to obtain possession of
Genes, the archbishop.
Ebroin spread a report that Leger was dead, and even
ordered a sepulchre to be raised to contain his ashes. But
Leger languished in a castle of Duke Waimer of Champagne,
who showed him great kindness, and gave him large sums of
money, seeing apparently that the chances of Clovis, whether
he were truly or not the son of Childeric, were declining, and
uncertain lest the turn of the wheel of fortune should send
Leger up again.
But Ebroin saw that the cause of Clovis was hopeless, and
he adroitly flung himself into that of Theodoric, and secured
for himself the place of mayor of the palace against Leudes,
whom Leger had set up. Ebroin, finding himself again su-
preme, and learning that Leger was not dead, ordered the
arrest of Werin, or Gerin, the brother of S. Leger, who had
neen involved in the conspiracy against Childeric, and that

*-
 -*

Oct, 2.]
S. Leodegar or Leger. 27

both Werin and Leger should be brought before him. Leger

turned his sightless eyes on the mayor, and said :
" By thy
oppression of the inhabitants of France, thou losest the high
rank thou hast acquired without deserving it."

Ebroin, highly incensed, ordered Werin, the brother of

S. Leger, to be taken forth and put to death. As he left,
Leger turned to him and said " Be calm, my dear brother,
:

we must suffer these things ; but the ills of this present life

are not to be considered beside the glory that awaits us.

Our sins are grievous, but the mercy of the Most High sur-
passes all, and is ever ready to cleanse the sins of those who
publish its praises. We must suffer in this world, for we are
debtors to death ; but if we endure suffering with patience,
the life in which we shall meet again will recompense us with
celestial joy."

Werin was taken forth, tied to the trunk of a tree, and

stoned to death.
Ebroin ordered Leger to be made to walk over sharp flints,

and that his lips and tongue should be slashed with a razor.
He was then given over to a certain Waring, to be conducted
to his house. Waring placed him on a poor beast, and accom-
panied by Abbot Winobert, he was taken to the residence of
Waring, where he was laid on straw, and covered with an
old tent-cloth. Winobert was amazed to hear the wounded
bishop stutter words through his cut lips and with his bleeding
tongue. Hermenar, who had been consecrated bishop of
Autun in theroom of Leger, obtained permission to visit the
sufferer, and he ministered to the patient, plastering over the
cut lips, and feeding him with gruel which could not hurt his
wounded tongue. S. Leger was able to speak,
After a while
and Waring took him Fecamp, in Normandy, and left
to
him in the charge of a community of religious women, under
the abbess Childemark. He was able there to speak and
preach to the people with his former facility, and to say mass
daily.
-*
 — ;

A letter written by S. Leger to his mother, after the death

of Werin, exists. It bears the title :
" I'he consolatory

epistle, which S. Leodegar, bishop of the Edui, sent to his

mother, after the death of his brother, Girenius, and the
loss of his eyes and the slashing of his lips," It begins as
follows :

" To madam, my very holy mother Sigrada, who, already

my true mother by blood, is more so still by the bond oi
spirit; in whom is accomplished the saying of the Truth
itself, '
Whoso doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven,
the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.'
"Leodegar, servant of the servants of Jesus Christ our Lord.
" Grace and peace be with you, from God our Father, and
the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God, who has not with-
drawn His mercies from me, but Who has caused me to hear
a word of joy and gladness, because of our common faith
and patience in all persecutions, and those tribulations
which are in Him, which you endure, following the example
of God, the Just Judge, in order that we may be found
worthy of His kingdom." The letter, which is long, breathes
the most fervent piety and calm resignation. " How truly

God has recompensed thee In place of a crowd of serving-

!

men. He has given thee holy brethren praying daily for thee;
in place of serving-women, sisters whose society is a delight
in place of many cares in the world, the peace of a convent
in place of earthly goods. Holy Scripture, meditation, and
prayer." Not one word throughout the letter about his own
sufferings and cruel mutilation.
His pitiable aspect attracted the reverence of the people
of the neighbourhood. Two years passed, and then Leger
was brought before a council of bishops assembled at Marly,
near Paris, and he was charged with having been privy to
the murder of Childeric. Leger admitted that he had not
been exempt from human frailty, but would not allow that he

*-
 -*

Oct. 2.]
S. Leodegar 07' Leger. 29

had had any hand in the commission of the crime. The

bishops were, however, satisfied that, though he had not been
a party to the murder, he had been one of the moving spirits

in the conspiracy, and his episcopal robe was torn from his
neck to his feet, and he was forbidden to offer the holy sacri-
fice. Having been thus deprived and degraded by the eccle-
siastical power, he was returned to Ebroin, who condemned
him to death, and ordered Chrodobert, count of the palace,
to execute him.
As he was being led away, Chrodobert, seeing him weak
and faint, ordered his page to bring him something to drink.
The day was cloudy, but as the cupbearer approached, the
clouds divided, and a sudden glory of golden sunlight fell on
the head of the blind and mutilated old bishop. S. Leger
was retained a few days in the house of Chrodobert, before
the final sentence, signed by the king, arrived. Then Chro-
dobert reluctantly ordered four of his servants to execute the
holy old man. He himself would not, could not, endure to
be present. His wife burst into a storm of tears. Leger
consoled her: "Do not cry about me; you are in no way
guilty of my death ; dispose of my body with reverence, and
heaven will bless thee."

The four servants led him into a forest. They looked

about for a well into which they might fling his body, but
could not find one. Three of the executioners knelt and
besought his pardon. The fourth drew his sword silently
from his scabbard. The saint knelt, prayed, and extended
his neck ; and whilst he was in prayer his head was smitten
off. As the body remained for a moment still kneeling, the
executioner thrust it down with his foot.
Then, by orders of the wife of Chrodobert, the body was
taken with reverence, and buried at Serein. The man who
had executed him, it is said, seized with remorse, went mad,
and falling into a fire, was so burnt that he died.
-*
 ^ :

*-

30 Lives of the Saints. ^oct 2.

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to judge of the con-

duct of S. Leger. In the midst of the political affairs of his
day he exercised a preponderating influence. Several great
saints were opposed to him, and condemned him as a con-
spirator against the king he hi:d set up in opposition to his
elder brother, when he found that his own authority was
waning. But there can be little question that when Leger
was at thehead of affairs during the regency of Queen Ba-
thild, the kingdom was governed in peace, and enjoyed a
prosperity it had not tasted for many previous years. Great
saints at that period mixed in the revolutions which devastated
France. Not long after the death of S. Leger, Martin, one
of the grandsons of Pepin of Landen, with his cousin Pepin,
aspired to at least the mayoralty of Austrasia. S. Reolus,
Archbishop of Rheims, and S. Agilbert, of Paris, swore upon
certain relics that Martin's life would be spared if he would
surrender himself But they had withdra\vn the holy wit-
nesses, and swore on the empty case. Martin was seized,
and the bishops made no protest against the death of the
deluded youth.
Ebroin perished by the blow of an assassin perished not —
in this world only. A monk on the shores of the Saone,
who had been blinded by Ebroin^ heard a boat rowed
furiously down the stream. A temble voice thundered out
•'It is Ebroin, whom we are bearing to the caldron of

hell ."2

St. Leger is represented in art with gimlets in his eyes, or

with pincers holding his eye-balls. Relics at. Poitiers ; the
head at Chaux-les-Chatillon; the upper jaw at Mercier, near
Soissons ; in the seminary church at Soissons, part of the
lower jaw. Another head is exhibited as that of S. Leger,
at Morbach, in Alsace ; another head, and a hand, at May-
' Fredegar, Contin. ap. Bouquet, ii. p. 451.
' Adonis Chron. ap. Bouquet, ii. p. 670.

*-
 1 :

-*

Oct. 2.]
'^- TJwnias de Cantilupe. 3

mac, in the diocese of Limoges ; another head at Jumieges,

in the diocese of Rouen ; another at S. Vast, in Artois; another
at Preaux, in the diocese of Lisieux, with four teeth adhering
to the jaw. The eyes, scooped out some years before the
death of the saint, were discovered after his death. One
was shown in the abbey of S. Victor, at Paris ; another at
S. Denys ; a third at Dijon, in the church of S. Magloire.
The entire body at Brain e-le-Comte, in Burgundy.

S. THOMA? DE CANTILUPE, B.

(a.d. 1282.)

[Canonized in 1320 by John XXII., who fixed his festival for the sixth
of the Nones of October (Oct. 2). Roman Martyrology, Lubeck-Cologne
edition of Usuardus, Greven, and Molanus ; Sarum, York, and Hereford
Kalendars. Galesinius on April 17 and Oct. 2. The process of canoni-
zation was begun by Clement V. in 1307, but was interrupted by his
death in 1314. The bull of John XXII. is dated from Avignon, April
17, 1320. King Edward II. 's letter to the Pope requesting the canoni-
zation is dated 17th Jan., 1319, and is to be seen in the second volume
of Rymer's "Foedera," p. 385 (Record Com. edition). Authorities:—
A compendium of the Life of the Saint, from the Process of Canoniza-
tion ; from the same.
his miracles Mention by Matthew Paris, John of
Brompton, &c. The Process of Canonization is of peculiar interest, as it
contains the testimony of numerous persons who had known S. Thomas
more or less intimately.]

Thomas Cantilupe was the son of Baron WiUiam Can-

tilupe and Mehsent de Gournay, widow of the Count of
Evreux.' Wilham Cantilupe was seneschal of Henry III.
By his wife Mehsent the Baron de Cantilupe had five sons
William, the eldest, seneschal of Aquitain, Hugh, Arch-
deacon of Gloucester, Thomas, Bishop of Hereford, John
Robert of Gloucester, in his examination at the canonization, says: "After the
English fashion, his mother retained the title of Countess after she had married
again."

ij. ^
*-

Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 2.

and Nicolas, barons. One of the witnesses in the canoni-

zation, Richard Kimberly, thought the rental of William, the
eldest son,was ;^2,ooo sterling. Hugh, the archdeacon, is
described by another as " clericus et dives." There were
three daughters : Juliana, married to John, Baron Tregoz ;

Agnes, the wife of Robert St. John, baron, whose son was
John St. John, seneschal of Aquitain in the reign o(

Edward I. Another daughter was married to Robert

Gregonet, baron, in England.
Thomas Cantilupe was born in 1 218, at Hambledene
S.

or Hambleden, not far from the Thames, near Marlow, in

Buckinghamshire, and was there baptized in the parish
church. Baron Cantilupe had a manor at Hambledene.
The child was entrusted to be nursed by a " devout, noble,
and holy matron," and at the age of seven was given, along
with his brother Hugh, good masters, and taught to hear
mass and the canonical hours every day. The director ol
the boys' studies was their uncle, Walter, Bishop of Worcester.
Thus the two brothers were trained from infancy for the
ecclesiastical state. Thomas was not, however, quite dis-
posed to renounce a more active career, for when Bishop
Walter asked the boys one day what profession they should
prefer, "I want to be a soldier," said Thomas. "Ah! a

soldier thou shalt be, indeed," said the bishop ;

" but a
soldier of Christ, and thy harness shall be the cassock ol

the priest."
From Worcester the youths were sent to Paris to study in
the arts. They kept house in noble style, with many ser-
vants. In 1245, when Thomas was aged twenty-seven.
Innocent IV. summoned a council at Lyons, and the two
Cantilupes hasted thither. The relations of the Pope with
England were far from satisfactory. Crowds of Italian
priestshad been intruded into Enghsh benefices, and this,
together with heavy taxation for the Papal necessities, had

*-
 _
^ ^
Oct. a.]
S. Thomas de Canttlupe. 33

kindled such violent resentment alike among the barons and

the prelates, as almost to threaten that the realm would alto-
gether throw off the papal yoke. It was tauntingly said

that England was the Pope's farm. At this time the col-
lector of the papal revenues, Master Martin, was driven
ignominiously, and in peril of his life, from the shores of the
kingdom. " Master Martin," says Matthew Paris, " had

been laying hooked fingers on the revenues of the Church

his
for the useand benefit of the Pope." ..." For his infa-
mous rapacity, many called him Master Mattin (pirate).
He extended his hands to exact contributions, to make
provision for unknown purposes, in accordance with the
impulse of his own mind, without any regard to reason ; and
being armed with cruel authority by the Pope, from whom
he showed new charters every day, adapted to any sudden
case of emergency, he forcibly extorted revenues, to be con-
ferredon the Pope's relations. Hence many said that he
had a number of parchments not written, but sealed with
the papal bull, so that he might write on them whatever
he pleased." Martin had taken up his residence in the
house of the Templars in London.^ Fulk Fitzwarenne sud-
denly appeared before him, and with a stern look said :

"Arise, get thee forth! depart out of England!" "In

whose name speakest thou?" " In the name of the barons

of England assembled at Luton and Dunstable. If thou art

not gone in three days, thou and thine shall be cut to
pieces." Martin sought the king. " Is this done by your
command, or by the insolence of your subjects?" "It is
' Matthew Paris says " Carrying himself like a legate, he sent word in all direc-
:

tions, to such and such an abbot, such and such a prior, ordering them to send him
costly presents of handsome palfreys, meats, drinks, and ornamental dresses, and it
not good enough he ordered them to send more, under penalty of suspension and
anathema. He also suspended all from bestowal of benefices worth thirty marks and
upwards till his cupidity should be satisfied. Hence the wretched English suffered
worse than the sons of Israel of old, and were obliged to endure the slavery of Egypt
in England."

VOL. XI. 3
^ ^
^
34 Lives of the Saints. [0ct2.

not by my command ; but my barons wall no longer endure

your depredations and iniquities. They will rise in insur-

rection, and I have no power to save you from being torn

to pieces." The trembling priest implored a safe-conduct.
" The devil take thee away !

to hell " said the indignant king,

ashamed of his own impotence.
All the ports of England were guarded against the
entrance of papal legates. England was in such a state of
exasperation, that Pope Innocent felt the necessity of allay-
ing the irritation. The Bishop of Worcester, the uncle of
the two young Cantilupes, was one of the malcontents.
When Hugh and Thomas appeared at Lyons, the pope con-
ferred on them the honour of papal chaplaincies, and
Thomas was provided with four bulls, granting him permis-
sion to hold any number of benefices in England simulta-
neously. On his way back, Thomas halted at Orleans to
study canon law, and after having taken a degree of licen-
tiate at Paris, returned to England. At Paris the brothers
had lived in great magnificence, many needy scholars had
been fed from their table with the scraps that remained ; so
had also daily from five to thirteen paupers. In their hotel
the brothers received a visit from the king, S. Louis. On
the return of Thomas Cantilupe to England, he went to
Oxford, and was elected Chancellor of the University (a.d.
1262). As chancellor he was remarkable for his strictness.
The north country and south country scholars were at that
time accustomed to fight. Thomas interfered in these distur-
bances, and carried off the bows and swords and daggers
of the most riotously inclined of the students. Hugh le

Barber, one of the witnesses at his canonization, said that

he had at one time in his possession as many as twenty con-
fiscatedbows and other weapons, and that he only restored
them when convinced that their owners were sincere in their
promises to keep the peace. One turbulent young fellow,
Roger Horn, who had fallen on twenty scholars and held
^ _ ^
,^ _
^
Oct. 3.] •^- Thomas de Cantilupe. 35

them at bay, had his sword confiscated in perpetuity, and

the chancellor made a present of it to John Kensey, after-
wards canon of Hereford. In one of the periodical
(quarrels between North and South, S. Thomas dashed with
midst of the disputants, and received a
his bedells into the
blow which cut through his mantle. He made no inquiries
whose knife had lacerated his cloak and endangered his life,

and his forbearance created astonishment.

S. Thomas was appointed Chancellor of England under

Henry IH. in 1265 but in 126S he returned to Paris, and

;

applied himself to the study of theology. How long he re-

mained there does not appear; it was " several years." His
studies were in the canonical Epistles and the Apocalypse.
He then returned to Oxford, became again chancellor in
1274, and afterwards for a year and four months lectured in
theology,till Gregory X. summoned a council at Lyons, and

Thomas Cantilupe went to Lyons to attend it. He was

there made chaplain of Pope Gregor)', as he had been before
of Innocent.
S. Thomas held many benefices simultaneously, " ex dis-
;
pensatione Sedis Apostolicce " he was precentor and canon
of York, archdeacon of Stafford, and canon of Lichfield,
canon of London, canon of Hereford, and held the livings
of Doderholt, Hampton, Aston, Wintringham, Deighton,
Rippel, Sunterfield, and apparently also that of Prestbury.
He was speedily engaged in litigation with the Bishop of
Worcester about a cow. There was a widow at Rippel who
died whereupon the bishop, claiming heriot, seized one of
;

her cows. S. Thomas, as rector of the parish, insisted that

the cow was his, as lord of the manor, and went to law about
it, and carried his point. The Dean of Warwick claimed the
small tithes of the parish of Sunterfield, worth two marks.
S. Thomas refused to admit the claim, went to law about it,

and gained the two marks.

On the death of his father, he was constituted executor.
^ __— ^
^-

36 Lives of the Saints. \ocx.i.

His mother demanded the horses and part of the harness

{volebat habere equos, et aliqua harnesia), but there was
no specification in the will that she was to have them,
so Thomas refused to surrender them they went by ;

right to his brother, but he generously gave to his mother

from his own stables sufficient horses and harness to satisfy
her.
Robert of Gloucester, one of the witnesses at the process
of canonization, was asked, not unreasonably, how the saint
managed with such a multitude of benefices, to execute the
duties incumbent on him in each ? He answered that he
conducted himself " very well, curiously, and dihgently; he
frequently paid a flying visit {frequenter discurrebaf) to his
benefices, and celebrated and preached devoutly in them,
and kept open house to great and small, and gave away
large alms to the poor." He also provided the churches
with respectable curates, and kept the chancels and par-
sonage houses in good repair. His bailiffs at Doderholt,
Hampton, Aston, Wintringham, and Deighton, had orders
to look after and relieve the sick and poor, and give them
peas, beans, and corn {bladas).
He supplied the curates of his churches with his old suits
of clothes,' and accompanied the present with an injunction
to be solicitous for the souls in their charge.

John Bruton, or le Breton, Bishop of Hereford, died in

1275, and Thomas Cantilupe was elected in his room, and
consecrated on Sunday, the 8th September, at the age of
fifty- six or fifty- seven.

He is described as having an angelic face, very white and

pink, with long nose, and thick beard, reddish, but then
patched with grey. He always wore his cloak, even at
meals ; his tunic was dressed with miniver, and he had a
miniver coverlet to his bed.
' " Dabat eis de vestibus suis."

*-
q^ ^

Oct. 2.] •^- Thomas de Cantilupe. 2>7

He was so very modest, that he never would allow his

sisters him and when Juliana, Baroness Tregoz,
to kiss ;

came to pay him a visit one day, and he saw that she had
made up her mind for a sisterly visitation of some consider-
able duration, he requested her, after she had spent one
night in his house, to pack up her trunks and be off with hei
maids elsewhere, for he only allowed old and ugly women to
lodge in his house.
His sisters persisted in coming to see him every year, but
he would scarcely speak to them, saying, not very politely,
that it was no use conversing with women, they twaddled,
and did not talk. " When Lady Juliana, wife of Baron John
Tregoz, his own sister, a very pretty lady, came to visit the

Lord Thomas, after he had been made bishop, at hismanor

of Bosebury, she wanted to kiss him on the mouth but;

Thomas drew himself up, and extended his hand for her to
kiss. Then the lady began to cry, being much troubled.
And those who stood by remonstrated, and urged Thomas
to let his sister kiss him, as was only honest and right, but
he would not suffer it."

S. Thomas did not approve of jokes, especially such as

were not very refined. He was dining one day with his
brother in-law, Robert, Baron Gregonet, when a young lady
at table sighed. ''Ha, ha!" laughed the baron, "Folks
say, when girls sigh, that they are looking out for hus-
bands." Thomas reproved him peremptorily.
The bishop had a nephew of whom he was very fond, and
whom he maintained at Oxford and Paris. The young fellow
was often with his uncle. But when S. Thomas went to the
Council of Lyons, under Gregory X., he did not take his
nephew with him. Some one expressed his surprise, and
asked the reason. " Because he is impudent," said Thomas.
" When I was a young man, if a girl looked at me I blushed

scarlet, and jDulled my hood over my face ; but that young

£<-

38 Lives of the Saints. foct.a.

cub looks about him, and right into the eyes of the girls,
without any colour rising to his cheek."
S. Thomas was a very moderate eater, astonishing his ser-

vants by his small appetite. " I never eat to satiety," he told

Master William Daubeny. When dainty dishes were served

up, he would smell them and say, "Shall I eat them? No,
I won't " send them away, and content himself \vith pottage
!

of vegetables. Sometimes, when there were various soups

and salt meats, he would mix several of them together, that
the taste might not be so deHcious. He doted on Severn
lampreys, and he confided on more than one occasion to
Nicolas, Earl of Warwick, justiciary and counsellor of
Edward I., that he "liked lampreys." Nevertheless, as the
Earl of War^^^ck testified on oatli before the papal com-
missioners, he had several times dined with the Bishop of
Hereford when there were lampreys on the table, and the
bishop did not touch them.
On Wednesday he ate no meat, and on Friday only bread
and soup. On Saturday he ate fish on the Vigils of Our
;

Lady, bread and water. Great uncertainty reigns as to his

drink. The witnesses were doubtful whether he took wine
or beer John Bute declared that he was " most
on Fridays.
vehemently sober in his food and drink ;" that he had white
wine set before him, and a bottle of water, and that often
when people thought he was taking wine, he was drinking
water. " His goblet, from which he drank wine," says the
same witness, "was small, of silver, and only as big as a salt-
cellar and he did not empty it at one draught. He com-
;

monly took only two cups of wine, and a little beer. He

rarely supped, and then only took one or two toasts, very
diluted."^ But the medical men interfered. "On the vigils
of the B. Virgin, and on Good Friday, the doctors would not

'
"Vipa." Du Cange, quoting Hermolaus, says: " Erat veteribus jentaculum
buccea ex vino, quod genus baxbari a vino e.\.pane, vippaiii vocant."

Ii<—
 ;

suffer him to fast on bread and water only, but made him eat
bread and pottage, in small quantity, and drink diluted wine
or very small beer." Robert of Gloucester, being ordered
by the apostolic commissioners to declare what he knew of
the virtues and abstinence of the saint, said " I came once :

with my lord to Hurley (Arlee), near Reading (Radinga),

in the diocese of SaHsbury (Sarr), I said to him, '
My lord,
you have not eaten and drunk enough, you cannot hold
out.' Then the Lord Thomas answered nothing. So I re-
peated what I had said, and he replied, Eat and drink what '

thou likest, but prithee hold thy tongue, and leave me in

peace.' Then I urged, '

No, I will not leave off, for I am
afraid of your dying of exhaustion, and so that I should lose
the promotion 1 expect of you.' Then Thomas said, '
What
a tlatterer thou art
! '
" Hugh Barber, being questioned, said
thatThomas de Cantilupe was a peacemaker. Being asked
how he knew that, he replied, that Thomas had reconciled
two priests at Hampton who were at variance, Master Peter
and Master Robert. When asked how he knew that the re-
concihation was complete, he replied that he had seen them
dine together at the table of Thomas de Cantilupe. On
another occasion he restored amity between John de Lud-
ham and the relatives of John de Cantilupe, his brother
for Mathilda de Valois, daughter of the said John de Can-
tilupe, had privately married John Ludham, a gentleman in

waiting on the family, and had set all the Cantilupes in a blaze
of indignation. The parents, the relatives, would have nothing
to say to Mathilda and her husband. The married couple
appealed to Thomas, and he patched up a reconciHation.
S. Thomas interfered, for the sake of peace, between hus-
band and wife ; for it is recorded that on finding that Hugh,
Baron de la Zouche, and his wife did not agree together, he
laboured effectually to pour oil on the troubled waters of the
domestic broil.
*
40 Lives of the Saints. [Q^^ ,

He was charitable to the poor, and gave away annually

among them cloth of all colours,' for making into stout warm
Avinter jackets and petticoats. These benefactions he made
before he was bishop, in the parishes of Hampton and
Sunterfield, after he was bishop at Bosebury.
He once gave a blue mantle, trimmed wth miniver,^ to a
vicar not in one of his parishes. To a certain William Plant-
folie, a muffin man,^ who used to play dice in pubhc-houses,
he gave a cloak and hood of Ypres blue ; and William vowed,
by all that was sacred, he would never play dice in taverns
any more.
He visited the sick poor, and any of his servants who were
confined to their beds, and gave them delicacies that had
been prepared for his own table.
His charity, however, did not extend to the Jews. He
obtained fi-om the king an order that, unless they should be
converted, they should be turned out of the kingdom. Forty
Jews waited on Thomas Cantilupe, and endeavoured to bribe
him from persecuting them,^ but he coldly refused their offers
and petition, telling them that they were rebels and enemies
against God.
One day a baron saw him talking to several poor folk, and
rebuked him. '•'
I have to give account of the souls of poor
as well as rich," said Thomas. At times he suffered from
lumbago and was obliged to walk with the assistance of two
sticks.

When bishop he rode with his stole on under his cloak,

and whenever he saw a child along the road, if he ascertained
it was unconfirmed he jumped off his horse and administered

the Sacrament on the spot.

He looked sharply after the morals of his diocese. A
' " De grosso paiino et de diversis coloribus."
'•' " Unum mantellum de blneto, foderatum de minutis variis."
' " Faciens colliridas."
* " Pecuniam ofi'erentes, ut desisteret a persecutione eorura."

•i<-
 1

-^

Oct. 2.]
•5'. Thomas de Caiitilupe. 4

who had deserted his wife for another

citizen of Hereford,
woman, he excommunicated ; and when the man remained
indifferent, he obtained his incarceration. Reginald Fitz-
Peter, a knight and baron of his diocese, was excommuni-
cated by him for incontinence. Baron Roger de CHftbrd
he subjugated to humiliating, insulting penance, for having
wronged the diocese in the time of the War of the Barons.
De Clifford offered the bishop a hundred pounds sterhng as
compensation. S. Thomas refused, and obliged the haughty
baron to do public penance before a crowd of the citizens of
Hereford, in the Cathedral. He was made to walk in his
tunic, with bare feet, round the church, Thomas following
with a switch, and lashing into his back till he reached the
high altar.

The offence of the proud baron was that, in the war against
Henry HI. he had dared to lay hands on Peter de Aqua-
blanca, a foreigner, who had been intruded on the diocese
as bishop, and had imprisoned him.
Thomas could not forgive Baron Clifford. On another
occasion he excommunicated him for having detained a
priest, probably for some crime, in his castle. He refused
to listen to any other terms save that the baron should
again do penance publicly in his shirt. The bishop seems
to have delighted in thus humbling the great, for one of the
witnesses at his canonization says that these unseemly ex-
hibitions were frequent.^
S. Thomas, though he held along with his bishopric an
archdeaconry, a precentorship, four canonries, and at least
seven livings, was filled, we are informed, with holy zeal
against pluralists unprovided with papal dispensations.
Hervey de Borham, dean of S. Paul's, and precentor of
Hereford, had been the rival aspirant to the see of Here-
ford. Shortly after Thomas had succeeded in obtaining the
' " Viderat multos publice poenitentes coram dicto domino Thoma in camisia."

-^
^-

42 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.2.

see, he detected that De Borham was without papal dispen-

sation permitting him to be a pluraHst, and he turned him
out of the precentorship — his motive, " zeal for justice," we
are gravely informed.
Richard of Gravesend, archdeacon of Northampton,
obtained the parish of Ross, in the diocese of Hereford,
without dispensation. Thomas was down on him like a
thunder-bolt,and deprived him.^ James de Vitri, arch-
deacon of Shropshire, was collated to one of the canonries
of Ledbury, that church being served by two canons.
Thomas, in his righteous zeal, deprived him of archdeaconry
and canonry.
Brother Nicolas de Wych, on being questioned at the
process, said " The Lord Thomas was naturally discreet
:

and prudent in things pertaining to this world, and more so

in those that pertained to For he had with him good
God.
and prudent counsellors, and by their counsel he acted in
matters pertaining to this world, whilst he watched in those
things which pertained to God; and when anything went
wrong, he laid the fault on the consciences of his coun-
sellors."

He was mightily fond of law, apparently, for he was

always involved in suits, from that about the widow's cow to

that with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The bishop had a castle at Ledbury, and the Malvern
Hills he claimed as his chase. But the Earl of Gloucester,
Gilbert de Clare, the most powerful baron in England,
hunted there ; his father had done so before him, and he
assumed that the right was his.
One day Bishop Thomas de Cantilupe heard the winding
of the earl's horns on the hills. He rode to meet him,
met him in a wood, and ordered him off his lands. The
earl, one of the haughtiest men in England, answered scorn-

* He became in a.d. 1280 liishop of London.

'tis-
 he was not going to be driven out of his ancestral
fully, that

by a " clergiaster/' and that he would chastise him as

rights
he had chastised other " clergiasters." Thomas, incensed
beyond measure, galloped back to his people, vested him-
self in mitre, stole, and cope, ordered his clerks to light

candles and follow him, and hasted to the spot where the
earl and his huntsmen, weary with the chase, were resting.
The bishop ordered the candles to be solemnly extinguished,
as he poured forth over his head the awful curse of the
Church ; and the great earl rode home, very much surprised
and indignant at being excommunicated and anathematized,
cut off from the grace of God, the sacraments, and Christian
burial, should he die, because of the hares and wild-deer of

the Malvern Hills,

Then S. Thomas summoned all his friends, and for three
days defiantly, insultingly, with bray of horn and shout of
derision, hunted over the hills. The hunting party was
composed of John Tregoz, his brother-in-law, Nicolas Sea-
grave, Geoffry and Fulk de Lucy.
The earl, disliking his excommunication, and wishing to
compromise matters, offered the bishop a large sum of
money, but S. Thomas could not forgive being called a
" clergiaster," and being threatened with chastisement. He
rejected the offer contemptuously, and brought an action
against the earl, which dragged its weary length through
the courts for four or five years, and though finally given in
favour of the bishop, he was never able to recover damages
from the proud earl.
He had another action going on at the same time with
Baron Corbet, Lord de Caus, about some pastures near
Ledbury. If any of the bishop's cattle strayed on to them the
baron impounded them, and would not let them out without
a fine. S. Thomas claimed a right to turn his cows on to
these meadows, and therefore threw the matter into court.
^-

44 Lives of the Saints. iQa..t.

When the verdict was given in his favour, Baron Corbet

turned to him and said angrily: "You are either full of
devils or in God's privy counsels." " I do not use diabolical
arts," answered the triumphant bishop ;
" but trusting in
divine assistance I maintain the rights of the Church."
S. Thomas had another contest with Llewellyn of Wales,
about three estates in Montgomery which he claimed, Aston,
Multon, and Churchstoke, belonging to his possessions
round Bishop's Castle. As it was in vain to try conclusions
at law with Llewellyn, he got the Archbishop of Canterbury
to excommunicate him. He then hastened to Bishop's
Castle, made his clergy light a great many candles, and
whilst he hurled an anathema at Llewellyn and all Welshmen,
greatand small, the candles were flung into the moat, and
went out fizzing in the slimy water.
He quarrelled also with Anian H., Bishop of S. Asaph,
touching their respective rights of jurisdiction. The Abbey
of S. MaryDora was the bone of contest between him
at
and the Bishop of S. David's. The new church had to be
consecrated; S. Thomas claimed to exercise jurisdiction
there, but the Bishop of S. David's stole a march on him,
and with the connivance of John de Tregoz, nephew of the
Bishop of Hereford, dedicated the church. Thereupon S.
Thomas brought an action against the bishop and his own
nephew.
Robert Burnel having been elected to the see of Canter-
bury, on the death of Robert Kilwardby, a.d. 1279, the Pope
quashed the election, and appointed to the archbishopric a
Minorite friar, John de Peckham. Peckham summoned a
council at Reading, and advanced claims which were re-

sented by the bishops, by none more so than by the bishop

of Hereford. It was not long before peace was broken
between them.
A certain Petronilla Bebler, and one Richard Bramford,

^-
 Opt J ]
6". Thomas de Cajitilupe. 45

in the diocese of Hereford, had a contention before the

court of the sub-dean, who gave judgment against Richard
Bramford. Instead of appealing to the bishop's court,
Bramford appealed direct to that of the archbishop. This
so incensed the bishop's commissary, that he excommuni-
cated Richard Bramford, who appealed against this sentence
also to Canterbury.
Thereupon Richard Bramford's father, also called Richard,
was excommunicated by the commissary of the Bishop of
Hereford, and when Allan de Lichfield, bearer of a man-
date from the archbishop to assert the excommunication,
entered the diocese, he was thrown into prison. The sub-
dean, who had been served with letters from the court of the
archbishop, contemptuously flung them into the mud. There-
upon Archbishop Peckham sent a mandate to the Bishop
of Hereford, ordering him to pronounce the excommuni-
cation of his own commissary and sub-dean, and to remove
the excommunication launched against Richard Bramford,
senior and junior, and citing the sub-dean and commissary
on a fixed day to appear at the church of S. Mary Arches, in
London, to answer for contempt of the court of Canterbury.
And should the bishop refuse thus to act, he was threatened
with suspension from officiating, and interdict wheresoever
he might be, except when the king, the queen, or the
princes, or the archbishop miglit be present.
How the affair ended does not transpire \ but it is certain
that S. Thomas left Hereford, and for a year and a half
remained concealed in Normandy. He had privately made
an appeal to the Pope, but he did not wish the Archbishop
of Canterbury to be aware of the fact, and so to prepare his
procurators in the Roman curia against his machinations.
The affair of the Bramfords was somehow settled; and
S. Thomas suddenly returned to England, and with smiles

and affected cordiality appeared before Peckham, who was

j, ^
 —
^-

46 Lives of the Saints. ^^^^ ,.

completely in the dark as to any appeal against his authority

being made in the court of Rome.
Almost directly after he came back the quarrel broke out
on an equally insignificant question. A priest named
afresh,

Master Henry Havekly, canon of Lincoln, a pluralist

holding many livings, died, and left the parson of Ross his
executor. Ross was in the diocese of Hereford. As the
archbishop claimed the right of proving wills, he sent to
the commissary of Hereford an order that an injunction
should be served on the vicar of Ross to attend the arch-
bishop's court. The commissary of the Bishop of Hereford
regarded this as an infringement of prerogative, and took no
notice of the mandate. Thereupon the commissary, Robert
le Wyse, was served with a sentence of major excommuni-
cation, and an order was sent to S. Thomas to summon the
vicar of Ross before the archbishop's court, and to publicly
excommunicate his commissary. Robert le Wyse, by the
bishop's advice, appealed to Rome, but apparently without
giving notice to the archbishop that he had done so. Then
the archbishop excommunicated, and placed under an inter-
dict, the Bishop of Hereford. S. Thomas, who was at the same

time in the midst of his squabble with the Bishop of Asaph,

determined to appeal in person at Rome against both the
archbishop and the Bishop of S. Asaph, and left secretly for
France,
We have several letters of Archbishop Peckham relative
to the matter.
The first is to this effect :

" Brother John, &c. (/. e. Peckham), to his procurators in

the Roman curia, health, grace There hasand benediction.
suddenly burst on us a tempest from the Bishop of Here-
ford, whom, verily, we beHeved be the most obedient and
to
specious of all our suffragans, and one whom we have heard
most highly spoken of. But we have been warned by Pon-

*-
 _

^ — >J,

Oct. 2.]
'5^« Thomas de Cantilupe. 47

tisar, archdeacon of Exeter, that while secretary himself

abroad, he has been endeavouring by his procurators to
extort apostolic letters against us, touching certain exactions
not due, and other matters. The result appeared in the
sequence ; but God overthrew his endeavours in this affair.

"And Robert of Gloucester, sumamed le Wyse, the

commissary of the said bishop, on account of his dis-
obedience, contempt and offence offered, both to our own
commissary and to ourselves, has been sentenced to excom-
munication, no legal form having been omitted in the
transaction. This was after the bishop, being on his way
back from abroad, had returned to England, and waiting on
us at Canterbury, had kissed us, putting on a sheep's skin to
deceive me, and blind me to his intrigues, so that we trusted
him as a most devoted and constant brother.
" Nevertheless, his officer has persisted in his contumacy
and dogged opposition, and the bishop has 'arned a deaf
ear to our injunctions, and has neglected and despised
them. He therefore, from whom we expected consolation,
having flung aside his obedience, which he swore to our
Church and to us, declares our sentence against his com-
missary to be invalid, and has incited him to appeal to
Rome, asserting that we have no jurisdiction, except on
appeal, over his flock ; he inserts many other astute and
shifty reasons in his letters, by which he seeks to justify his
disobedience and refusal, point blank, to obey our orders.
Understanding which, and lamenting his damnation, and
desiring to restorehim by salutary exhortations to a right
obedience, we wrote to him again and again, warning him
not to force us to punish such defiance with canonical
severity.
" At last, a meeting having been convened at Lambeth,

and we had, on our part, treated him in an amicable

manner, we asked him 7.77W voce to do for us what he and

^ _______
 ;

^-

48 Lwes of the Saints. [Oct.

his predecessors had done hitherto for us and our prede-

cessors, and having laid aside the vice of disobedience, to

return to firm charity and submission; and this he pro-

mised to do.
" But at length, when our monitions and amicable con-
ferences availed nothing, but this bishop, putting on a
dovelike appearance, armed himself with trickery and crafty
imaginations against us, we again warned him by mouth and
in writing. And as he persists in his rebellion and malice
and contempt, we have been forced to launch the sentenc e
of excommunication against him, by writing, as justice
requires. Thereupon he appealed away to the Roman
Curia, and that after we had ordered all our suffragan bishops
throughout the province to publish the sentence pronounced
against him.
" And now he feigns frivolous excuses, and mixing blas-
phemy with lies in his appeal, going forward in all sub-
tlety and falsehood, he defames us publicly and solemnly
throughout England, and dares, perjurously, to publish
things tending to the subversion of our Church. It is

reported that this bishop is already on his way to Rome

we can hardly beHeve it, for the report is not certain ; but
should it be true that he has crossed the Channel, he has
nol done it openly, but secretly, and when he is thought to
be here, lo ! he is hidden somewhere else, sneaking away in

his fox-skin. Now should he chance to appear in the Court

of Rome, be on your guard, and let no letters be given at

his request without being checked and questioned by you ;

and be very watchful and solicitous, as our adversary is

subtle, walking in all guile. Given at Clist, at the Bishop

of Exeter's, the 2nd of the Calends of April, in the 4th yeai

of our consecration (1282).''

Thomas Cantilupe had crossed over ; the archbishoj)
learned the fact later, and wrote again to warn his agents at

>b-
 the Court of Rome, bidding them spare no money in their
attempts to obtain a judgment against him. The Bishop of
Hereford was well received by Pope Martin IV., who com-
municated with him, ignoring the sentence of excommunica-
tion launched against him by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
which, however, could only have effect within the province
of the archbishop.
The prosecution of his appeals was interrupted by mortal
sickness. Finding his end approach, he drew up his will,

made his confession to the grand penitentiary of the Pope.

On the night of the 25th of August, as he was held up in
bed, he recited the hymn, " Veni Creator Spiritus;" then he
said : "By the sign of the holy Cross deliver us from our
enemies, O God
and by this sign of the Cross drive away
!

every and by the same sign preserve all that is good."

evil,

Then he murmured, " Into Thy Hands, O Lord !" and "I
commend my spirit to Thee, O God of Truth !" He raised
his joined hands to heaven and repeated, " I commend my
spirit," and breathed his last.
His attendants separated the flesh from the bones, buried
the flesh with pomp at Monte Fiascone, and brought back
the bones to England. They were laid in Hereford Cathe-
dral. Since the reign of S. Thomas, the arms of the see of
Hereford have been those of the Cantilupes, adopted in
honour of the saint. He died in 1282, and his bones were
translated to a more magnificent tomb in 1287. Numerous
miracles having been wrought at it, Clement V. began the
process of his canonization in 1305, at the request of King
Edward I. In the process sixty-six witnesses were examined
before the apostolic commissioners, in S. Paul's Cathedral,
London, in July, 1307. The canonization took place in
1330, by Pope John XXII.
It is asserted by the Jesuits of S. Omer that they are in
possession of an arm of S. Thomas.
VOL. XI. 4
* >J*
>^-

50 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 3.

October 3.

SS. DioNYSius, Faustus, Caius, and Others, MM. at Alexan-

dria.
S. Rom ANA, V.M. at Beaiivais; circ. A.D. 303.
S. Hesychius, Mk. at Majuma, in Palestine ; circ. A.n. 373.
S. Menna, V. at Fontenoy-le-ChiLtel, in tlie Vosges ; end of ^th cent.
S. Maximian, B.C. of Bagce iti Africa; stk cent.
S. Cyprian, B. of Toulon; circ. a.d. 565.
SS. Two Ewalds, pp. mm. itt Westphalia; circ. a.d. 695.
S. Gerard, Ab. of Brogne, fiear Nainur ; a.d. 959.

SS. DIONYSIUS, FAUSTUS, CAIUS AND

OTHERS, MM.
(beginning of 4TH CENTURY?)

[Modem Roman Martyrology with Faustus, Caius, and others. These

latter areadopted from the Greek Menologies. The Roman Martyrology
simply says, "Dionysius, Faustus, Caius, Peter, Paul, and four others,
who, having first suffered many things under Decius, received the palm
of martyrdom under Valerian, by order of .^milian, the governor."
But S. Dionysius, the B. of Alexandria, occurs again in the Roman Mar-
tyrology on Nov. 17, and S. Faustus again on Nov. 19, and again with
Caius on Nov. 20, along with Eusebius, Chaeremon, and Lucius.
" Hinc in Martyrologio Romano majorem accurationem non immerito
quis forte requirat," say the Bollandists.]

N this day the Greeks commemorate S. Dionysius,

Bishop of Alexandria, and other Christians who
suffered. By some mistake Baronius inserted
these martyrs in the Roman Martyrology on this
day, without knowing that Dionysius was the same as the
famous Bishop of Alexandria, and thus made duplicate
martyrs out of Dionysius, Faustus, and Caius. According to
him they suffered at the beginning of the 4th century,
whereas S. Dionysius, the bishop, certainly attained his

i^-
 1

^ ^
Oct. 3.]
S. Hesychius. 5

crown about the year 265, and if the others were his com-
panions in martyrdom they must have suffered about the
same date.

S. ROMANA, V.M.

(about A.D. 303.)

[Gallican Martyrologies. Authority :

—a Life, late, and wholly
apocryphal.]

S. RoMANA is said to have been one of twelve virgins at

Rome who, moved by the preaching of S. Peter, were con-
verted, and set off in company with SS. Dionysius, Fuscia-
nus, Victoricus, Piatus, Ruffinus, Crispin and Crispinian,
Valerius, Lucian, Marcellus, Quintin, and Regulus. S.

Romana and two others, Benedicta and Leoberta a Teu- —

tonic —
name, by the way attached themselves to S. Lucian
and S. Quintin. Leoberta was martyred at Laon, and
Benedicta at Origny ; Romana suffered at Beauvais with S.
Lucian. No reliance whatever can be placed on the story.

S. Dionysius of Paris belonged to the 4th century, and

not to the ist.

S. HESYCHIUS, MK.
(after a.d. 373.)

[Inserted in the Modern Roman Martyrology by Baronius. Authori-

ties :
—the Life of S. Hilarion by S. Jerome, Nicephoras Callistus, &c.]

Hesychius was one of the devoted disciples of S.

S.

Hilarion, and was banished with him from Gaza. The im-
placable enmity of the pagans against S. Hilarion led them
to pursue him when he fled, and the old hermit led for some
^-

52 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 3.

lime a life of concealment in Sicily. From thence Hilarion

sent Hesychius to Palestine to salute tiie brethren. After
having accomplished his mission, Hesychius rejoined his
master in Cyprus, but was absent on another expedition to
Palestine when the venerable hermit died. S. Hilarion, by
will, left him his heir, bequeathing to him his book of the
Gospels, and his clothes. Hesychius, having learned the
death of his master, returned to Cyprus, and stayed ten
months in the cell of Carburin, where the old man's bones
weie laid, till the suspicion of the Cypriots was allayed, and
then he made off with his bones at the risk of his life to
Majuma, the port of Gaza, to the old monastery of S.
Hilarion.

S. MENNA, V.

(end of 4TH CENT.)

[Gallicau Martyrologies. Authoiily : — the late Acts based on tradi-

tion.]

S. Menna, or Manna, is said to have been bom at Sou-

losse in Lorraine, during the 4th century, and to have been
the daughter of a noble named Bactius and of his wife,
the Lady Leutrudis, and therefore of a Teutonic family.
S. Menna is said also to have been sister of S. Eucharius

and S. Elapius, martyrs, and of the virgins Gontrudis, Li-

baria, Suzanna, and Oda, who are honoured in the dioceses
of Toul and throughout Champagne. But little reliance can
be placed on this assertion of the late Acts, as they are based
on popular tradition, which may have confounded dates,
and united as sisters persons removed from one another by
race and period.
INIenna was sent by her father to be baptized by the Bishop

^-
 of Chalons. She was regenerated, and then sent back to
her father, but five yearsafter, acting on the advice of

the bishop, Bactius placed her in a school conducted by

nuns at Chalons, where she was carefully trained in a holy
life. When of age to be married, the noble reclaimed his
daughter, and several suitors offered for her hand. But Menna
rejected every offer, and flying secretly from her home, re-
turned to Chalons, carrying with her a veil, which she placed
in the bishop's hands, and she entreated him to consecrate
her a virgin to Christ. He hardly consented, as he feared
the resentment of her father. And when, in fact, Bactius
sent after his daughter, highly incensed, he had to be ap-
peased by the story that an angel had taken the veil and
had himself covered with it the head of the virgin. Bactius
believed, or pretended to believe, this story, and was con-
strained to endure what was irrevocable. The furious per-
secution of Julian the Apostate then broke out against the
Christians, say the Acts, in happy unconsciousness of the
facts of history,and the nuns of Chalons were forced to fly
to preserve their lives and honour. Menna, accompanied
by a single servant, came to the river bank, where was then
a deep pool and an eddy, so that boats could not cross it.
She prayed, says the legend, and the pool was filled up with
sand, so that she was able to cross dryshod. The spot is
now called the Que de Sainte-Manne. Having passed, she
drove her staff into the ground, and a spring bubbled up for
the relief of thirsty passengers who should in future traverse
the ford, and would be disincHned to drink of the river.
She reached a forest in the Vosges, and constructed a
hermitage at Fontenoy-le-Chatel. There she spent the rest
of her days, which were not many. She died young, and
was buried at Fontenoy. But in 1036 her relics were trans-
lated to Portsas, near Mirecourt.
She is represented in art with an angel veiling her.

4i —^
 —
^-

54 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 3-

S. MAXIMIAN, B. OF BAG^.
(5TH CEINT.)

[Modem Roman Martyiology, inserted by Baronius. Authority:

the writings of S. Augustine against the Donatists.]

S. Maximian was Bishop of Bagse in Northern Africa, at

the time of the troubles with the Donatists, that excited
S. Augustine to labour for their repression. He and his

brother Castor were at first infected with Donatist views, but

they came over to the CathoHc side, and Maximian having
destroyed a church of the Donatists, these schismatics fell

on him and wounded him in the stomach. They threw him

from the top of a tower, but he fell into a dungheap, which
saved his life. A poor man found him
naked lying there,
and covered with filth. He took him home, washed him,
bound up his wounds, and gave him clothes. Maximian
scarcely waited for his wounds to close before he crossed
the sea to show them, and describe the indignities offered
him to the feeble yet orthodox Emperor Honorius, a.d. 404,
and so stir him to the publication of severe repressive edicts
against the sectaries. " He was moved to this," says S. Au-

gustine, " not from desire of revenging his own ill treatment,
but that the Church might be benefited." Having goaded
Honorius into issuing an edict as tyrannical as his heart
could wish against the luckless Donatists, he returned to
Africa to witness its execution.
He had the satisfaction of seeing them driven wild with
persecution, their churches closed, their sacred rites for-
bidden, and their goods confiscated.
The date of his death is not known.

^-
^ — .
^
Oct. 3.]
^>^^ ^^<^ Ewalds. 55

THE TWO EWALDS, PP. MM.

(about a.d. 695.)

[Roman and German Martyrologies. Authority: — Bede, Hist. Eccl. v.

c. 10.]

The Venerable Bede relates that, " Two priests of the

English nation, who had long lived as strangers in Ireland,
for the sake of the eternal inheritance, following the example
of Wilibrord, went into the province of the ancient Saxons,
to try if they could there gain some to Christ by preaching.
They both bore the same name, as they were one in devo-
tion, Hewald being the name of both, with this distinction,

that,on account of the difference of their hair, the one was

called Black Hewald, and the other White Hewald. They
were both very pious, but Black Hewald was the more
learned in Holy Scripture. On entering the province, these
men took up their lodging in a certain steward's house, and
requested that he would conduct them to his lord, as they
had a message, and something to tell him to his advantage.
The steward received and entertained them in his house some
days, promising to send them to his lord as they desired.
" But the barbarians, finding them to be of another reli-

gion, by their continual prayer and singing of psalms and

hymns, and by their daily offering the sacrifice of the
—
saving oblation for they had with them sacred vessels and
—
a consecrated slab for an altar began to grow jealous of
them, lest come into the presence of their lord,
they should
and converse with him, and turn his heart from their gods
to the new religion of the Christian faith, and thus by
degrees all their province should change its old worship for
a new one. Hereupon they, on a sudden, laid hold of them
and put them to death ; the White Hewald they slew imme-

* *
 ;

>l<'

56 Lives of the Saints. ioa.%.

diately with the sword ; but the Black they put to tedious
torture, and tore limb from limb, throwing them into the
Rhine. The chief whom they desired to see, hearing it,

was highly incensed, and put to death all the peasants

engaged in the murder and burnt their village. The afore-
said priests and servants of Christ sufi'ered on the 3rd of
October.
" Nor did their martyrdom want the honour of miracles
for their dead bodies having been cast into the river by the
pagans, as has been said, were carried against the stream for
the space of almost forty miles, to the place where their com-
panions were. Moreover, a long ray of light, reaching up to
heaven, shone every night over the place where they were,
in the sight of the pagans who had slain them. Moreover,
one of them appeared in a vision by night to one of his
companions, whose name was Tilnean, a man of illustrious
birth, acquainting him with the fact that their bodies lay
where he would find a ray of light reaching to heaven. And
so it was, the bodies were found, and buried with the honours
due to martyrs ; and the day of their passion, or of their

bodies being found, is celebrated in these parts with proper

veneration. At length, Pepin, the most glorious general of
the Franks, understanding these things, caused the bodies
to be brought to him, and buried them with much honour
in the church of the city of Cologne, on the Rliine. It is
reported, that a spring gushed out in the place where they
were killed, and that it affords a plentiful stream to this
day."
The place of their martyrdom seems to have been Apler-
beke, a little on the Embscher, near Dortmund, in
village
Westphalia. Bede was mistaken about the name of the
river into which the bodies were thrown, if reliance may be
placed on local tradition uninterrupted from a remote date,
which has fixed on Aplerbeke as the site of the martyrdom.

*-
>b-
— >J<

Oct. 3.]
^- Gerard. 57

Moreover, the bodies did not float against the stream, but
down it towards the Rhine, the Embscher flowing nearly-
due west. The rest of the party had certainly not pushed
east ofDortmund. According to another opinion, the site
of the martyrdom was in the county of Hoya, near Bremen,
but this is not probable, nor supported by so persistent a
tradition.
The Anglo-Saxon form of the name of the saints was
certainly Edwald, but in German it has become Ewald.
The relics were translated in 1074, by Anno, Archbishop
of Cologne, to the church of S. Cunibert, in his metropolitan
city. The heads were given by him to Frederick, Bishop
of Miinster, but they were lost when the Anabaptists held
Miinster, in 1534, and sacked the churches.

S. GERARD, AB.

(a.d. 959.)

[Roman and Belgian Martyrologies. Authority : —a Life by an anony-

mous writer, apparently a monk of Brogne, dedicated to Gunthe, abbot
of Brogne in 1031.]

At the close of the 9th century, there lived at Staves,

in Lumai, a man named Stant, of noble birth, being akin to
Hagen, Count of Austrasia,^ married to Plectrudis, sister of

Stephen, Bishop of Tongres. They had a son named

Gerard, who entered the castle of Berengar, Count of Na-
mur, and was one of his military suite. One day, when
out hunting, Gerard at dinner-time hitched up his horse
beside the forest chapel of Brogne, which was on his own
family estate, and went within to take his midday nap.

' Hagen subscribed an agreement with Charles the Simple and Henry of Germany
in A.D. 924.

^ _ ^
 ;

J<

58 Lives of the Saints. \oz\..->.

In dream he beheld S. Peter, who slipped his hand within

that of the sleeper, and conducted him round the chapel,
saying to him, " Hither shalt thou bring the body of my son
Eugenius, the martyr." When Gerard woke up, he was
much puzzled with his dream. It hung about him, but how
to fulfil the order of S. Peter he knew not. Not long after
he was sent to Paris, and there, entering the church of S.
Denys, he heard among the saints invoked the name of
Eugenius. Full of eagerness, he to the monks and
went
asked who Eugenius was, and how
body might be ob-
his
tained. They informed him that Eugenius had been a dis-
ciple of S. Dionysius, who they fondly imagined was the
Areopagite, and commissioned to Gaul by S. Peter himself;
and as for getting the body of Eugenius, it was sheer impossi-
bility, " for the people of Paris loved him as an angel of God."

Gerard, however, did not despair ; he hasted back to

Namur, communicated his design to the Count and the
Bishop of Tongres, and returned to Paris, where he was
shaven, and assumed the habit of religion in the abbey of
S. Denys. After many years, he had so won the love of the
monks, that he ventured to ask again for the bones of S. Eu-
genius, and this time they were not refused him. He returned
with them to the county of Lumai, and they were exposed
to the veneration of the neighbourhood with extraordinary
pomp.
Some persons, however, complained to the Bishop of
Liege that Gerard was inciting all the district in which he
was to the highest enthusiasm of devotion to the bones of an
unknown man. He burned candles before them, as though
they were the relics of, at least, an apostle, and as to the
genuineness of the relics there was not a particle of evidence
he had no proof that they belonged to a martyr.'

' " Ecce nuper advectus e Francorum fiiiibus, Bronii colitur, nescio quis martyr
Eugenius, cui in cereis aliisque oblationibus tanta veneratio exhibetur ab omnibus, ac

*-
^ .»!<

Oct. 3.]
-S". Gerard. 59

The advice was no doubt sensible. The bishop felt it

was so, and started from Fosses, where he was then staying,
for Liege, with full purpose to forbid the worship of the relics

till he was satisfied as to whose they were. But on his way,

at Maloignes, he was taken with violent cramp in his bowels,

so that he thought he would have died. He lay down flat

on the ground, and ordered candles to be lighted about him,

and S. Eugenius to be invoked. The spasms ceased, the
bishop got up, was quite satisfied with the authenticity of
the relics, and the power and virtue of Eugenius, and forth-

with made the festival of S. Eugenius a day to be observed

annually, the same as a Sunday, throughout his diocese. A
council was summoned at Liege, the bishop gave a graphic
description of his sufferings, and relief when Eugenius was
invoked. No further scrutiny into the history of the martyr
and the genuineness of the relics was deemed necessary, and
the decree of the bishop was confirmed by acclamation.
At the request of Ghislebert, Duke of Lorraine, S. Gerard
undertook the refomiation of the monastery of S. Ghislain,

near Mons. For S. Ghislain had appeared in dream to the

duke, and had complained to him that the monks of the
monastery where he was had allowed him no rest, but carried
him about the country incessantly, to excite the people to
bring them large alms, all which they spent on their own
amusements and riotous living. In fact, they were using the
body as a mere show to get money for scandalous purposes.
Gerard turned these monks out, deprived them of the sacred
body, and replaced them by severe Benedictines.
Arnulf, Marquis of Flanders, was troubled with the stone.
He applied to S. Gerard, who fasted for three days, and then
said mass. During the mass the marquis was freed from the

sicredatiir ex Apostolis unus. Ubinam textus martyrii ejus? ubinam scriptura conti-
nens ejus gesta? Vestram profecto prudentiam oportet summopere perscrutari et
iuvestigare, si sit a Deo, an non, Eugenius iste."

^ ,

^
*-

6o Lives of the Saints. ^oct. 3.

calculus. Full, graphic, and grotesque details are given by

his biographer. Arnulf was so delighted with his cure, that
he appointed S. Gerard to the inspection and reformation of
all the monasteries in Flanders.
When he had spent nearly twenty years in this most
hard and thankless labour, he retired into a cell at Brogne,
where he died on October 3, a.d. 959.
He is said to have reformed the monasteries of Mar-
chiennes, of Saint-Amand, of Hasnon, of Saint -Vaast in
Arras, of S. Bertin, of Wormhoudt, of Auchy-les-Moines, of
Saint-Wulmer, of Blangy, of Renaix, and of S. Ame at Douai,
all of which were in a demoralised condition.
The Abbey of Brogne obtained several privileges from the
Holy See, which S. Gerard procured on a visit to Rome.
His relics are preserved at Brogne.

*-
*- -^

S. VICTOR OF MARSEILLES (see July 21).

After the Painting by Giov. Antonio de Bazzi at Siena.

*
Oct.— Part T.
 1

Oct. 4-]
6'6'. Crisp us and Cams. 6

October 4.

SS. Crispusand Caius, at Corinth ; ist cent-

SS. LrciusAND Ch-«:remon, MM. at A Icxandria; ettdof^rdceftt.
SS. Thyrsus and Companions, MM. at Treves; circ. a.u. 303.
SS. Boniface and Companions, MM. at Treves; circ. a.d. 303.
SS. Marcus and ]\Iarcian, MM. in E^ypt ; a.d. 304.
SS. Domnina, Berenice, and Prosdoce, MM. in Syria; a.d. 305
SS. Adauctus, M. in Mesopotamia, and Callistiiene, V. al
Ephestis ; ^ih cent.
S. Ammon, //. in Egypt; ci?r. a.j>. 350.
S. QuiNTiN, M. at Tours; end of dth cent.
S. AuREA, V. Abss. at Paris; circ. A.D. 666.
S. Peter, B.M. in Arabia; a.d. 743.
S. Magdalveus, B.C. at Verdun; circ. a.d. 762.
S. Francis, C. at Assist in Unibria; a.d. 1226.

SS. CRISPUS AND CAIUS.

(iST Cent.)

[Ado, Notker, and other Latin Martyiologies. Authority: —Mention

by S. Paul in his Epistles, and in the Acts.]

RISPUS, ruler of the Jewish Synagogue at

Corinth,' was bajDtized along with his family by

S. Paul."^ A
is mentioned by S. Paul in
Caius
Romans, and again in the first
his Epistle to the
Epistle to the Corinthians, " Gaius, mine host, and of the
whole Church, saluteth you,"^ from which we may conclude
that S. Paul lodged at Corinth with Caius, and that the
Christians there assembled in his house for worship.
Caius was baptized by S. Paul.* " I thank God," says he
to the Corinthians, " that I baptized none of you, but Crispus
and Gaius."
Origen says that, according to tradition, Caius became

'
Acts xviii. 8. ' I Cor. i. 14. ' Rom. xvi. 23. * i Cor. i 14.

-^
»^-

62 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.4.

Bishop of Thessalonica. The Apostohc Constitutions (vii. 46)

mention Crispus, Bishop of yEgina, but whether this was the

Crispus baptized by S. Paul is not stated.

SS. THYRSUS, BONIFACE, AND OTHERS, MM.

(about a.d. 303.)

[Gallican and German late Martyrologies. Not known at Treves,

where they are said to have suffered before the 1 1 th cent. No mention
of them in a Treves Calendar of the loth cent.; two others o( the nth
are also without notice of them. In one of the I2th, on Oct. 4, is this
entry: " Tyrsus, Palmatius." In one of the 13th, on Oct. 5 " Palma-
:

tius and his Companions"; and on the 6th: " Innumerable Martyrs."
A Treves Breviary of the 14th cent, has, on Oct. 4, " Tyrsus, duke, and
his Companions, MM."; on the 5th, "Palmatius and his Companions,
MM."; and on the 6th, "Innumerable Mai'tyrs." This arrangement
was given to them by Baldwin, Archbishop of Treves, who died A.D.
1354. No ancient martyrologist knew of these martyrs: they are not
mentioned by Bede, Ado, U.suardus, or any others. The modern Roman
Martyrology omits Thyrsus, but inserts Palmatius and his companions
on Oct. 5. Saussaye inserts Thyrsus and his companions on Oct. 4,
and Palmatius and his on Oct. 6. S. Boniface is mentioned on this day
in the Lubek-Cologne Calendar of the i6th cent, and in the Martyrology
of Moyen-Moutier in the Vosges. The Acts of these Saints were com-
posed out of the imagination of the author on the invention of tlieir relics
in 1071.]

The earhest mention of martyrs at Treves is in the Acts

of SS. Fuscianus and Victoricus, composed in the 6th cen-
tury. These Acts give no particulars and the Church of
;

Treves was profoundly ignorant of the fact that its soil had
been watered by the blood of martyrs, till, in 107 1, the monks
of S. Paulinus, being desirous of increasing their collection
of relics, dug about their crypt, and found quantities of bones,
as might have been expected. With these bones was most
happily unearthed a leaden tablet, on which was inscribed all

)J<-
 -*

Oct. 4.] SS. Domnina, Berenice, and Prosdoce. 63

the information necessar}'. It informed them that the bones

were those of Thyrsus, Palmatius, Maxentius, Constantius,
Crescentius, Justinus, Alexander, Soter, Hormisdas, Papyrius,
Constans, Jovinus, all martyrs. And to satisfy the most
sceptical,one of the bones having tumbled down from the
stretcher on which they were being carried, showed signs of
fresh blood, " and it is bloody to this day."
The genuineness of the tablet has been abandoned by most
antiquaries of Treves.
A cross stands on the spot of the supposed martyrdom of
S. Thyrsus and his companions, before the church of S. Pau-
linus. The Moselle is said to have flowed red with blood
for many miles below Treves.
Various miracles are recorded as having been wrought by
the relics, which calculated to spread their renown. Portions
were eagerly sought and distributed ; some went to Prag ;

others to Paderborn and Brunswick ; some are now at

Einsiedeln, others have travelled to Gratz, in Styria.

SS. DOMNINA, BERENICE, AND PROSDOCE, MM.

(A.D. 305.)

[Greek Menology. Authorltie.s :

—
Mention by Eusebius, lib. viii.

c. 12; an oration by S. John Chrysostom; S. Ambrose, Horn, xxii.]

DoMNiNA and her two daughters, virgins, Berenice or

Verinna and Prosdoce, in the persecution of Diocletian
fled from home, but were pursued ; and being taken by
soldiers, to escape from their brutality flung themselves into
a river and were droNvned.

J< ^
 ]

»^-

64 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 4.

SS. ADAUCTUS, M. AND CALLISTHENE, V.

(4TH CENT.)

[Greek Menaea and Menology. Some Latin Martyrologies.

Adauctus, a citizen of Ephesus, suffered martyrdom in

Mesopotamia, in the persecution of Maximin. His daughtei
Callisthene cut her hair short, disguised herself as a young
man, and concealed herself in Nicomedia. After eight
years she went to Thrace, and lodged with a woman who
had a daughter with dehcate eyes. Callisthene, by careful
attention, healed the girl, and the mother desired to marry
the two, that they might settle in her house and be the
comfort of her old age. Callisthene was then obliged to
tell her story. She went next to Constantia, the wife of
Licinius, and told her her case, and the empress procured
for her the restoration of her father's property which had
been confiscated.
Callisthene recovered the body of her father, brought it to
Ephesus, and built a church over it.

S. AMMON, H.

(about A.D. 350.)

[Greek Menology and lioinan Martyrology. Authorities: Mention —

Antony, by S. Athanasius, Socrates, Sozomen, and tlie
in the Life of S.
Lives of the Fathers of the Desert.]

S. Amoun, Ammon, was an Egyptian of an opulent and

or
noble family. At the age of twenty-two he lost his father
and mother. He had long resolved to live to God alone,
but his uncle, who had been constituted his guardian, and

*-
 Oct. 4.] '^' Ammon. 65

others of his family insisted on his marrying. A young man

of two-and-twenty, one would have thought, was beyond
the age at which he could be constrained. But Ammon
submitted, with the resolution formed in his heart to take a
wife only to live separate from her. He accordingly married
a young and modest and immediately after the conclu-
girl,

sion of the ceremony announced to her that he had taken

her hand with reluctance, and that he had no intention of
fulfilling the duties he had that day undertaken towards her.

So far from purposing to love and cherish her in sickness

and in health, he proposed to live as if he was supremely
ignorant of her existence. When he informed her that he
desired that they should not inhabit thesame house, she
was naturally indignant, and protested that, though she
would submit to be his wife only in name, yet she would
not endure the indignity of being turned out of his doors on
the very day of their wedding. Ammon consented to let

her live in the house, and even to take her meals with him ;

but otherwise they were to one another as strangers, or

friends living on distant terms. He spent his day in the
garden cultivating balm, and his night in prayer and
psalmody.
Thus passed eighteen years. The gentle wife accommo-
dated her ways to his, adored him as a paragon of ex-
cellence, and modelled her mode of life upon his. At the
end of these years, at her owti suggestion, they separated,
and Ammon retired to the deserts of Nitria and she trans-
formed his house into a convent of holy virgins. Ammon
speedily became renowned in the desert as a master of the
sohtary and was surrounded by disciples. Twice in the
life,

year he visited his wife, that he might direct her conduct,

and that of the community she had founded.
The report of his sanctity having reached S. Antony, a
close friendship grew up between the two hermits ; they
VOL. XI. q
*- *
^
66 Lives of the Saints. roct.4.

visited one another periodically, and took counsel together

as to the manner in which they should walk. S. Ammon
died at the age of sixty-two, of which twenty-two were spent
in the desert.
Several anecdotes, not however of remarkable interest,

are related of the abbot Ammon ; but as there were several of

the same name, it is not certain to which of them they
properly belong. S. Antony is said to have seen his soul
borne to heaven by angels.

S. QUINTIN, M.
(end of 6th cent.)

[Gallican Martyiologies. Authority :

— The Lections in the Tours
Breviary.]

QuiNTiN of Tours, not to be confounded with his more

famous namesake, was a native of Meaux, who came to
Tours when Gunthram was King of Paris. The wife of his
master fell desperately in love with him, and because he in-
dignantly rejected her overtures she compassed his murder,
which took place at LTndrois, near Montresor.

S. AUREA, V. ABSS.

(about a.d. 666.)

[Usuardus and the Gallican Martyrologies. Modem Roman Martyro-

logy. Saussaye, on Oct. 4, and again on Oct. 5. The Acts are so wholly
fabulous that the Bollandists have declined to publish them.]

If we had only the legendary life of the saint, we should

probably doubt the existence of such a person \ but two
writers, S. Ouen, in his life of S. Eligius, and Jonas oi

^'
 -*

Oct. 4.]
6". Aurea. 6y

Bobbio, in his life of S. Eustace, both ^vrite^s living at the

time, mention Aurea as abbess at Paris, in the 7 th

century. S. Ouen says she was the daughter of Maurinus

and Quiria, and that when Dagobert I. built a nunnery at

Paris at the advice of S. Eligius, Aurea was made abbess of

the virgins placed in it. Jonas of Bobbio adds that the
rule observed in this house under Aurea was that which
S. Caesarius of Aries gave to his sister Csesaria for the
government of the great nunnery he had erected at Aries.
This is all that is kno^\^l of S. Aurea which can be relied
upon. Now hear her Acts. Aurea was a Syrian maiden,
who came from the East to Paris, and there was constituted
superior of three hundred virgins. One day she was at a
country house belonging to the abbey, when she heard that
her cellaress was dead. She hastened back to Paris, found
that this was true, and that the dead maiden grasped the
cellar keys so tightly in her hand that they could not be got

from her. Aurea therefore called her back to life again, to

surrender the keys of the cellar, and after she had given

them up dismissed her again to the realms of death. On

another occasion the oven was red hot, but there was no
bread to be put into it. Aurea got into the oven, and
swept the red-hot ashes out with the sleeves of her gown.
At that moment, miraculously, all the bells of the convent
began to ring. The sisters rushed tumultuously to church
and sang " Te Deum." When this hymn of praise was
ended they returned to the oven, and found it full of well-
baked loaves.
After the death of Aurea, a Syrian maiden, who was born
blind, was informed in a dream that if she could touch the
relics of Aurea, a Syrian damsel who had become abbess at

Paris, she would obtain her sight. She announced this to

the bishop of the city where she lived, and persuaded him to
start off with her to Gaul in quest of the body of this Aurea.

* — jj,
*-

68 Lives of the Saints. (-oct. 4.

The blind girl got tired of the society of the bishop, or the
bishop had had enough of the girl's company, before they
reached Gaul, so they parted, the bishop promising to rejoin
his fair companion with a leg or an arm of the saintly
abbess. He pushed on to Paris, and there begged so
earnestly for a piece of the dead Aurea, that the clergy of
Paris consented to cut off an arm. As they did so, the
blood spouted forth in volumes. Delighted with his miracu-
lously bleeding treasure, the oriental prelate returned to the
spot where he had left the Syrian maiden, applied the
bleeding stump to her eyes, and she saw instantly. The
pair then returned to Syria, where they built and endowed a
monastery in honour of the arm of Aurea.
S. Aurea is said to have pulled the stole off a deacon
during the divine office because he sang out of tune ; but
was reproached for her conduct by an angel, and in self-
punishment shut herself up for seven years in a cell, and
lived on only bread and water.
The relics of S. Aurea are in the church of S. Eloi, at
Paris, under the custody of the Barnabite fathers.

S. FRANCIS OF ASSIST, C.

(a.d. 1226.)

[Roman and Franciscan Canonized by Gregory IX.,

Martyrologies.
in 1228. Authorities: — (i) A by Thomas de Celano, his disciple.
Life
{2) Another Life by S. Bonaventura (d. 1274). (3) A Life, perhaps by
Thomas Ceprani, fl 1245. (4) An Appendix to the Life by Thomas de
Celano, by three associates of the Saint, Brothers Leo, Rufinus, and
Angelas ; published by the Bollandists. (5) " Speculum vitse S. Fran-
cisci," a singular work, composed subsequently, perhaps in the 14th
cent. There are several editions, one of Metz of 1509, another of Ant-
werp of 1620, a third of Cologne of 1623, all somewhat differing from
one another. The "Speculum" is of no historical value towards the

*-
 After Cahier. Oct.
S. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 4.
 '

Oct. 4.] S. Francis of Assist. 69

biography of the Saint. (6) Another singular book illustrative of the

extraordinary cultus of S. Francis is the "Vinea S. Francisci," pub-
lished at Antwerp in 1518. (7) The " Fioretti di San Francesco" is a
collection of anecdotes of the Saint, collected in the 14th cent.]

The quaint little town of Assist, in the Duchy of Spoleto,

perched upon rocks, was the birth-place of the seraphic
Father of the Franciscan order. He was born in 1182, of
good, though hardly noble, parents. His father, Peter
Bernadone, was a merchant ; his mother's name was Pica.
The Franciscans, in their eagerness to establish a close
uniformity between their founder and the Saviour of the
World, fabled that he was born in a stable. The stable is

now a chapel dedicated to San Francesco il Piccolo.^ This

fable, however, arose after the 14th century, for then
Bartholomew of Pisa wrote his " Conformities of S. Francis
with Christ," a most extraordinary book, in which the
Messianic prophecies are interpreted as applying to S.
Francis. In it he drew an exact parallel between the Saint
and the Saviour, but he says nothing about the nativity in
the stable, whicli he certainly would have adduced had the
myth been then in existence.
Another wonderful legend of his infancy is, that when he
was being baptized in the church a mysterious and venerable
stranger appeared, who took the child in his arms and
acted as his godfather at the font, and then vanished in the
direction of the Cathedral of S. Rufinus. According to
another version of the story, the mysterious old man was an
angel, who took the child up in his arms, signed its right
shoulder with the cross, and uttered a canticle which is a
poor copy of the " Nunc Dimittis." This is another of the
fables circulated for the purpose of making the analogies
'
In the composition of this life much has been made of
use, often verbatim,
Mrs. Oliphant's "Francis of Assisi " (Macmillan and Co.), and to it the reader is
referred for full details of a life abounding in beautiful incidents.
' The Infant Francis.
 "

ff-

70 Lives of the Saints. \ot<..^^.

between the life of S. Francis and of Christ more exact. It

is, book of Bartholomew of Pisa.

of course, in the wonderful
To return to plain facts. At his baptism the child was
called by his mother, John at the time his father was
;

absent in France ; on his return the name was changed

familiarly into Francis. The legend writers have invented
a host of reasons, all too ridiculous to deserve notice.^ The
real reason is not At an early age his father,
hard to seek.
who, having travelled in France on business of merchandise,
knew the value of a knowledge of other languages besides
the mother tongue, and who destined his son to succeed him
in his business, took pains to have the child instructed in
French. The young folks of Assisi, unable to appreciate
the reasons of Peter Bernadone, ridiculed the boy for
speaking French, and called him, in jest " Franciscus," or
" Frenchman." Later biographers say that his acquisition
of the French tongue was miraculous, but had it been so, it

would not have been imperfect, and Thomas of Celano and

S. Bonaventura inform us that though he could talk French,

he did not talk it correctly.

Francis, in his youth, was keen in the pursuit of money,
but no miser. He spent freely but not extravagantly,
dressed handsomely, and ate and drank of the best.^ He
was fond of fun and cheerful society, but he never seems to
have stained his youth with sins of unchastity, nor to have
been immodest in his conversation.
About the year 1201 the city of Perugia was at war with
that of Assisi, and in one of the frays between the rival
citizens, Francis was captured and detained a twelvemonth

' As that when he prayed in

an ecstasy he always used the French tongue, which
—
he had acquired miraculously so Jacques de Voragine. The same wise author says
another reason was, because he found experimentally that the name " Francis" had
wonderful efficacy in scaring away devils.
* He was fond of poultry. After his conversion he had himself led through the
streets of Assisi with a rope round his neck, :ind his companions who conducted him
cried, " See the man who fattened on chickens !

^-
* — >J<

Oct. 4.] S. Francis of Assist. yi

in prison in Perugia. On his return to Assisi, his love of the

sober routine of a merchant's hfe gave way to a taste for
arms. He had a friend who proposed to go to Apulia, to
sustain the pretensions of Walter de Brienne to the kingdom
of Sicily. Whilst the project was shaping in his mind, he
went out one day dressed in a new suit of the handsome

clothes for which he had a carnal inclination. On the way

he met " a certain soldier of honour and courage, but poor
and vilely clad." The charity which was habitual to him,
and the feeling of brotherhood towards an old man-at-arms
which his new-born military ardour naturally inspired,
moved him to a sudden enthusiasm. He took off his fine
clothes and gave them to the poor old warrior. " Thus he

at once fulfilled two offices of pity," says Bonaventura, " by

covering the shame of a noble knight and relieving a poor
man's penury."
This kindly act was rewarded on the next night by a
remarkable dream. He thought he beheld a goodly palace,
and that he entered it and found an armoury filled with
every variety of weapon, each signed with the cross, and
flags and symbols of military triumph were hung along the
walls. "All these," said a voice, " are for thee and for thy
soldiers." Little did he then imagine what this dream
portended, and that the weapons of his warfare were not to
be carnal.
Francis provided himself with horse and suit of mail,
and set out on his way to Apulia. He got as far as Spoleto,
but there fell ill, probably with a relapse of the intermittent
fever v/hich pursued him more or less all his life, and which
haunts like a ghost the fairest parts of Italy. While he thus
lay, one night, in the feverish succession of heat and cold, half
asleep, half stupefied, he suddenly heard a voice which
questioned him :
" Francis, whom does it profit most to
follow, the master or the servant?" "The master,"
Ij,
^
72 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 4.

answered the sick man, promptly. "Why then," asked the

voice, " do you leave the master for the servant, the prince
for his subject ?" The young Francis said, like Saul, " Lord,

what wilt thou have me to do?" " Return to thy country,"

answered the voice, " and then it will be told thee what thou
must do."
Such was the story which Francis, in after years, told his
followers. Whether it was a dream, or whether some good
counsellor had visited his sick couch, he was not in a
condition to say. Next morning the tertian ague left him,
after its wont, suddenly. Perhaps feeling that with this
complaint on him he would make but a poor soldier,
perhaps impressed by the mysterious conversation which
had taken place in the night, he remounted his horse, not
to go on to Apulia, but to return to Assisi.
He returned to his former course of hfe, but not with the
same zest as formerly. He was just at an age when the
deepest feelings of man's nature begin to make themselves
heard. The round of drinking and frolic, music and
laughter, did not satisfy the vague cra\ings of a soul capable
of lofty things. One evening he was revelling with his
companions. When supper was over, the merry party dashed
out of the hot, lighted room into the open air. The dark
indigo-blue vault of heaven was overhead, besprent with
myriads of stars, the air was soft and balmy, and all was
hushed. Francis stood still, his sensitive, poetic nature was
touched by the contrast.
" What ails you, Francis ? " asked one of the revellers.
"He is star-gazing for a wife," joked another.
"Ah!" said Francis solemnly, "for a wife past all that
your imaginations can conceive!"
His soul with inarticulate cravings strained for some great
love to fill it and satisfy it, but what that love was he knew
not.
* »J<

Oct. 4.]
'5'. Francis of Assist. 73

Whether this was the last of his revels we are not told,
perhaps it was it marked the first distinct perception that his
;

old life of careless merriment was at an end for him. From

this time he was gradually drawn on towards the goal. He
was drawn by his kindliness of heart. He had been profuse
in his charities, sympathizing with misery, always ready to
do a kind act to him who needed it, but now these impulses
settled into a systematic habit of charity. One class of
sufferers he had always avoided, from his instinctive love
of beauty, this was that of lepers. But he determined to
overcome this repugnance. One day as he was riding across
the valley he met a poor leper. The moment for an act of
self-conquest was come. He descended from his horse,
kissed the hand of the poor wretch, and filled it with
money.
Whilst he was in a state of profound uncertainty, the
transition from one state to another, he went to Rome,
probably upon mercantile business, which he did not neglect
throughout this crisis of his inner Hfe. He was drifting on
a sea of doubt, not knowing whither to steer. He had
broken from his old moorings, but he had found no port.
He was sick at heart, dissatisfied with himself, with Hfe, with
the world, but his vocation was not clear to him. His mind
even seems to have been slightly thrown off its balance. He
was ready to obey any impulse, however strange, in the vague
expectation that he would hit at last on the road that would
lead him to peace and happiness. As he was wandering
through the basilica of S. Peter's at Rome, in this unsettled

condition, he was struck with the poverty of the offerings

made at the shrines. He at once thrust his hand into his

purse, pulled out all the money in it, and threw it in at the
grating before the tomb of the Apostles. The money fell

with such a noise that it attracted the attention of all who

were near. Francis, ashamed of his act, as if one of ostenta-
*-

74 Lives of the Saints. j-oct. 4.

tion, though no such motive had prompted him, hastened

out of the church. Then he saw the steps crowded with
beggars. Another fit of enthusiasm came over his disturbed
heart, he pkicked off his clothes, changed them with a
beggar for his rags, and seated himself for the rest of the day
on the steps of the cathedral, begging with the squalid and
hungry crew.
There could be no more striking indication of the chaos of
all his ideas, than this ready yielding to a succession of un-
reasonable impulses.
He returned to Assisi, having finished his business ; but it

was not to the joyous, careless life of former days. The

current of his life gradually, imperceptibly, swept into the
new channel of piety —not of active charity only, but of deep
meditation on God and the mystery of Redemption. The
sublime life of Christ in all its simplicity and self-abnegation,
and the death on the Cross which concluded that long sacri-
fice, seized upon his soul, as sometimes the influence of a

living leader will fire a young imagination with enthusiasm

and self-devotion. "And I, if I be hfted up, will draw all
men after me." Those words of Our Lord were fulfilled in
Francis. His heart, which had gone forth begging for a love
to which to cling, found its object in the Incarnate Son of
God. No anxiety about his own salvation seems to have
distressed Francis. He forgot himself in the ecstasy of his
love for his Saviour. He had found what
he desired, and it
was more than he had dreamed of. The Gospel narrative
pondered over by Francis was so real, that he longed to
follow every step of the Life of Lives. Having found a quiet
cave in a wood or thicket, away from the roads, he was wont
accompanied by a friend, whom he left out-
to retire thither,
side. There he would spend hours of devotion and con-
templation ; and when he issued forth, his companion was
struck by the alteration in his countenance, it had become

*-
^ ^
Oct. 4,]
S. Francis of Assist, 75

so pale and haggard. Francis was walking in darkness,

waiting to be pointed out his way ; his old life was impos-
sible to him now, its landmarks removed, its pleasures
emptied out, its apples turned to dust. It was his hour in
the wilderness ; and so far as his friends and relations could
see, an eclipse had fallen upon the bright promise of his
youth.
But the character of Francis was not one that would allow
—
him to rest thus he must find something to do. His future was
determined by his next step, and that by an act which certainly
shows how completely disturbed his mental state was at the
time. There was a little church dedicated to S. Damian at
Assisi, which had fallen into disrepair. This deserted church
attracted Francis, and he was often wont to seek it for pri-
vate prayer. The ruinous condition of the sacred building
forced itself on his notice, and then suddenly flamed up in
him the resolve to restore the dilapidated sanctuary. But
this very natural resolution arose, according to his bio-
graphers S. Bonaventura and the Three Companions, from
a very wonderful event, of which, however, Thomas de
Celano, writing only three years after the death of the Saint,
knew nothing, so rapidly do legends grow. According to

the story, Francis was kneeling in the crumbling old church,

before an image of the Crucified, when the image said to
him, "Francis, seest thou not that my house is in ruins?

Go, and restore it for me." "With good

Lord," will.

answered the eager suppliant, thinking that the church re-

ferred to was the little chapel of S. Damian, and not the
Cathohc Church, which in the West was tottering, and would
have fallen, had not S. Francis and S. Dominic been raised
up, as two pillars, to support it on their shoulders.

Francis sprang from his knees, seized with the impulse to

repair the church of S. Damian, — an impulse as sudden as
that which made him empty his purse into the tomb of the

* *
^-

y6 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 4.

Apostles, and change his clothes with a beggar ; and with

the same unreasoning precipitation he hastened home,
carried off several bales of cloth from his father's warehouse,
to which he had no right, conveyed them to Foligno, and there
sold them, together with the horse which had brought them
thither. Then he money to the church of
ran with the
S. Damian, and offered it to the priest who ministered there

This worthy man, surprised at the large sum offered, and th

excitement of the young man, before receiving it asked ques
tions about how he had come by and elicited the facts.
it,

When he ascertained that Francis had no right to the money,

he refused to receive it, and Francis, disappointed and angry,
tossed the bag containing it into the corner of a built-up
window, there to lie among the dust and rubbish which were
as valueless as it had proved to be.
Francis, knowing he had done wrong, was afraid to face
his father, and begged the priest to take him in. This he
consented to do but his honesty made him resolute in his
3

refusal to receive the money. Francis remained some days

in the presbytery, out of spirits and bewildered. Before
long, Bernadone discovered the place of his son's retreat.
He was greatly exasperated at what Francis had done, and
having collected his neighbours, he made a raid upon San
Damiano, to recover his son and his money. Francis took
refuge in a dark cellar, where he lay concealed for several
days. He stayed there long enough to reach the depths of
despondency, and at last to recover sufficient moral courage
to face the difficulty. He therefore issued from his voluntary
dungeon, pale and worn by his seclusion, and the poor fare
with which he had been supplied, and left San Damiano a very
different figure from the " felix mercator " who had carried
his money and heart to God's house, in the exuberance of
enthusiasm, a short time before.
When he appeared in the streets, and was recognized, a

^-
Oct. 4.] 'S'. Francis of Assist. 'j'j

popular tumult arose. The townsfolk, among whom he had

been a great crowded round him with threats and
favourite,
insults. He was pelted with stones, and pursued with
shouts of derision. The noise of the commotion reached
the ears of Pietro Bernadone in his dark shop, and he issued
forth, flaming with indignation and resentment. His gallant
son, whom he had proudly said was more like a prince than
a merchant, who had been the favourite of Assisi and the
hope of his house,had now become a squalid, wretched
fanatic. He rushed into the street, mad with shame and rage,
and upon Francis with all the fury of outraged love
falling

and pride, drovehim home with blows and curses to the

house where he had been born. He was shut up in a dark
prison, bound as a criminal, and compelled to endure the bitter
reproaches of his incensed father. A few days after, Berna-
done went out on business, and then the mother crept to her
boy; she unloosed his chains and unbarred the door, and bid
him depart. It was in love that she sent him forth, but yet
it was banishment from his home. Francis went back to
San Damiano without a word of complaint, having thus had
the bonds of nature snapt from him one by one. Thence-
forth there was no choice left for him; no looking back,
had he desired it. The little presbytery, the poor priest, the
old church falling into ruins —
such were the only friend and
refuge left to him in the world. When Pietro returned and
found his son gone, he was not softened, but pursued him
with unwavering virulence. He appealed to the magistrates
to recover for him his son and
money. Francis, by this
his

time, had recovered his courage. There is something in ex-

cessive violence which weakens persistence, and even, if that
be possible, neutralizes the most just ground of complaint.
The young man had repented, and had been punished
severely and now his spirit was roused. He rephed to the
;

summons of the magistrates, that he was now a servant of

*-

78 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 4.

God, and independent of their jurisdiction. Pietro then

carried his appeal to the bishop. " I will go readily to the

bishop," said Francis ; and accordingly, in the episcopal

palace he met, probably for the last time, his unyielding
father. Public opinion had now begun to turn against the
harsh Pietro, who demanded not only the restoration of his
money, but also a public renunciation of all claim to any
share of the family property from his once favourite boy.
The bishop exhorted Francis to restore the money. " Give
it back to him," said he " for whatever is acquired by un-
;

just means, God refuses to accept. Therefore, my son, have

faith in God, and act like a man."

These words soothed and encouraged the young penitent.

His father's relentless persecution had stirred his indignation

and contempt. This same father, who pursued him so piti-

lessly about a miserable sum, the result of one day's sale,

had formerly grudged him no extravagance. " Not only the

money," said Francis, " but everything that can be called
his, even the clothes he gave me, I will restore." And
throwing off his gay garments, he piled them in a heap in
the midst, placing the money on the top of all. Then he
turned, half naked, yet delivered by his passion from all

sensitiveness or shame. " Bear witness all present," he

cried, " I have restored to Pietro Bemadone all that was
his. Up to this time I have called him my father, I call
him so no more. God alone is now my father."
The bishop threw his mantle over the naked shoulders of
the youth, and tenderly embraced him. And a scene so
strange and touching moved every heart. The father, still
indignant and full of bitterness, collected the money and
the clothes, and went forth carrying the remains of the son
who was henceforth dead to him.
A labourer's rough frock was obtained, and Francis, clothed
in it, departed. It was winter, and the snow was on the

*-
 — "

^ >J.

Q^^ ^ ]
S. Francis of Assisi. 79

ground, but Francis departed to the woods, and wandered

among the snow-laden trees, singing in French the praises
of God. He found refuge in a monastery, where for some
time he laboured in the kitchen. He stayed there till his
one garment was worn and then he rambled off to
out,
Gubbio, to an old friend, to beg another. After this follows
an indefinite period of wandering, during which he gave
himself up to the nursing of lepers, and entire subjection
of his own will and carnal inclination.
When he had thoroughly achieved the conquest of him-
self, he returned to San Damiano, to commence the work

which lay near his heart. He brought stones from the

quarries, hewed them, shaped them, and built them into the
walls of San Damiano he was indefatigable over his task.
;

He dragged heavy stones up the hill on his shoulders,

worked the mortar, laid the courses, and plastered, all with
his own hands. The townsfolk looked on in wonder. By
degrees their ridicule died away, and he was treated with
reverence and awe. By degrees the citizens lent assistance,
and so he succeeded in restoring the church.
was whilst engaged on this pious task that the kindly
It

San Damiano provided certain delicacies for the

priest of
young man, knowing how daintily he had been brought up.
Francis was shocked at this indulgence of his palate. In
his fervour he almost rebuked the kindness of his fatherly

friend:
— "You, a priest," he said, "and thus lend yourself
to human weakness !

And in his excitement he seized a dish and ran into Assisi,

begging from door to door scraps which would have been
bestowed on paupers. The Assisan housewives who, with
an amazement beyond words, gave their alms to that strange
petitioner, knew all his story ; knew his daintiness of
they
old, and they knew also the reason why he had conquered
it. When he had collected scraps enough for his meal, the

* -^
^-

So Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 4.

once fastidious Francis returned to the presbytery with the

broken crusts upon his plate, to eat them with what appetite
he could. At first, disgust took possession of him, and he
turned from the unpalatable meal, but afterwards, going
back to it with renewed courage, he consumed and rising
it all,

with joyful heart, told the priest that thenceforth it would

be unnecessary to make provision for him ; he had found

out the means of supplying his own bodily wants, without
interfering with his work for God.
Thus, as it were by accident, the first principle of the
Rule of S. Francis was established. But no idea of any
Rule was then in his mind. When the church of S. Damiano
was finished, Francis restored two others, a church of S. Peter,
and that of S. Maria degU AngeH, at the Portiuncula, which
became from that time his home.
This work occupied him two years. Up to this time he
had lived a curious, semi-ecclesiastical life. But he was still
untonsured ; it does not seem to have occurred to him to
make himself a monk of any of the existing rules. He lived
alone, free to follow his own But the day which
devices.
was to fix his destiny approached. He
had been converted
in 1206; and it was in 1208, when he was hearing mass
one day in the little church he so loved, that something
in the Gospel struck him as it had never done before.
When the mass was over he begged the priest to expound
it to him. The words which suddenly smote on his con-
science as a new and special message were these " Provide :

neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip
for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet
staves. And as ye go, preach, saying, '
The kingdom of
"
heaven is at hand.'
" Here is what I have wanted," said Francis, "here is

what I have long sought;" and leaving the church, he

divested himself of his shoes, cast away his staff, loosed

^-
 -*

Oct. 4]
S. Francis of A ssisi. 8i

the leathern girdle from his waist, and supplied its place by
a piece of cord, the first thing that was ready at hand. Thus
again, half by accident, another distinction of the unformed
Order came into existence. But what was more, this mes-
sage to his soul conveyed to it an object, gave it a purpose,
for which it had groped during the years of probation. His
mouth was opened to preach the Gospel to the poor. He
went forth out of the little church of the Portiuncula on
that S. Barnabas Day, 1208, as a preacher, and thus, un-
aware, began a mission which was to move whole kingdoms,
and dominate the lives of multitudes of men. Nobody
could be less aware of this than the humble Francis. He
began his preaching everywhere with the salutation, " The
peace of God be with you," and was heard by all. " His
words were like fire," says Celano, " piercing the heart."

His first disciple, according to Celano and the Three Com-

panions, was a certain nameless boy of Assisi, but as no
further mention of him or particulars concerning him occui
in any of the lives of S. Francis, it is probable that he fell

away from the young Order. The next to join Francis was
a citizen named Bernardo di Quintavalle, a man of wealth
and learning. He distributed all his goods among the poor,
and placed himself unreservedly at the disposal of the saint.
The next to offer himself as a disciple was Pietro de Catanio,
a canon of the Cathedral of Assisi both these men of posi-
;

tion and fortune were received together, and eight days after,
another citizen of Assisi, called Egidio, presented himself as
a candidate. As soon as Egidio had received the brown
habit of the new Order, Francis took him as his companion
on an apostolic journey into the Marches of Ancona. They
went along the sunny roads together singing praise God, to
and "as it happened had not yet begun
that S. Francis
publicly to preach to the people, he went along admonishing
and reproving men and women by the way, saying simply,
VOL. XI. 6
^ _ ^
 with tenderness, '
Love and serve God, and do penance, as
is meet, for your sins;' and Brother Egidio said, '
Do what
my spiritual father says to you, because wliat he says is the
'
best.'

S. Francis seems then to have had some forecasting ol

what his society would become, for he said to his companion,
" Son, our Order will be like the tisher, who puts his net
into the watersand takes a great multitude of fishes, keeping
the larger ones, and leaving the smaller." At this Egidio
marvelled, for the whole Order then consisted of himself,
Bernardo, Pietro, and their friends.
But others now began to flow into the community, and as
soon as his disciples had reached the number of seven, S.
Francis sent them out to preach by twos, as our Lord had
sent His disciples. He made them an affectionate address
before they separated " Go," said he, according to Bona-
;

ventura, " proclaim peace to men preach repentance for

;

the remission of sins. Be patient in tribulation, watchful in

prayer, strong in labour, moderate in speech, grave in con-
versation, thankful for benefits." And to each, separately,
as he took leave of him, he said, " Cast thy care upon the
Lord, and He will sustain thee."

The preachers met with all the ordinary varieties oi

reception. Some hailed them as messengers from heaven,
others mobbed them as maniacs, but wherever they went
they roused the public mind, sometimes to interest, some-
times to opposition, always, at least to wonder. And already
this bold pictorial lesson of men wedded to poverty, pre-
sented before a world which was corrupted by the greed of
gain, had begun to tell. Up to this time the little company
had lived together by the simple exercise of their own will,
without any rule or formal bond uniting them. Francis was
their natural leader, was he who had drawn them by his
it

example out of the world, and to whom they looked as their

*«-
* ^
Oct. 4.] S. Frmicis of Assisi. 8,
'O

guide ; but they were, as yet, under no legitimate subjection

to him, nor were they bound to the Hfe of hardship which
they had vokintarily adopted.
When the httle house which they inhabited at the Porti-
uncula was so was scarcely room for them all
full that there
to lie doAvn in became necessary to give to the family a
it, it

constitution. Francis felt this, and was troubled. He went

forth at night to pray and meditate over the matter. On
one such occasion, Celano informs us, he had retired to
his accustomed devotion, his heart heavy with thought and
anxiety, and in his depression, able to say nothing but
" God be merciful to me a sinner," when a certain prevision
of what his order would become came on him and filled his
soul Avith unspeakable ecstasy. When he returned to his
brethren, he bade them rejoice with him. "Be comforted,
my dearest ones," he cried " rejoice in the Lord, and be
;

not doAvncast because we are few, for it has been shown to

me by God that you shall increase to become a great
multitude, and shall go on increasing to the end of the
world. I see a multitude of men coming towards me from
every quarter, French, Spaniards, Germans, and English,
each in his different tongue encouraging the others."
So the rule was drawn up, consisting, like the other
monastic rules, of the three great vows of poverty, chastity,
and obedience, differing only in so far that the poverty
ordained by Francis was absolute. In other rules, though
the individual was allowed to possess nothing, the com-
munity had often rich possessions, but among the Fratres
Minores there was not to be so much as a provision secured
for the merest daily necessities. Day by day they were to
live by God's providence, eating what they were given in
charity, taking no thought how they were to be fed or
wherewithal clothed.
Another grand distinction of the rule drawn up by S.
•ii-

84 Lives of the Saints. [Oa. 4.

Francis was the occupation it prescribed to its members.

They were not to shut themselves up or to care first for

their own salvation. They were to preach — this was their

special work ; they were to be the heralds of God to the

world, to proclaim the coming of His kingdom. Cloistered
seclusion was not to the taste of S. Francis. So far as we
can make out, he had thought little of himself — even of his
own soul to be saved —
all his Hfe. The trouble on his mind
had been what to do, how sufficiently to work for God, and
to help men. His fellow-creatures were dear to him he :

gave them his cloak from his shoulders many a day, and
the morsel from his own lips; and would have given them the
heart from his bosom had that been possible. He was
not of the world, but yet he would not be taken out of the
world.
As soon as the rule was completed, Francis presented it

to the Bishop of Assisi, who stumbled at the prohibition of

all possessions. " Your life," said the bishop, " without any
goods in the world seems to me most hard and terrible."
" My lord," answered Francis, " if we had possessions we
should need arms to protect them." There was force in this
response. The bishop knew the violence and rapacity of
the Umbrian lords, and he withdrew his objections.
Francis, with his companions, now went to Rome to
obtain the confirmation of the rule from the Pope. Ac-
cording to the account of Bonaventura, Francis approached
Innocent HI. whilst walking on the terrace of the Lateran,
lost in thought. The Pope, annoyed at the invasion of his
privacy, waved the poor stranger away impatiently. But
that night he saw in a dream the great church of S. John
Lateran tottering to its fall, when two men hasted to set
their shoulders to support it. In one of these Innocent
recognized the brown-dressed stranger of the day before,
the other he afterwards saw in S. Dominic.

^-
Qct.^.]
S. Fi^ancis of Assisi. 85

Next day he sent for S. Francis and had his rule ex-
amined; objections were again raised against the prohibition
of all property, but Francis overruled them. Innocent
approved the rule, and gave to the members of the new
order the tonsure, so that, though not priests, they might be
considered clerks.
The joy of the little band was extreme. When they had
received the Pope's blessing, and that sign of consecration,
they set out, shoeless, staffless, without a penny, or a purse
to put one into, without a crust of bread for their journey,
upon their way home. But though they were on their way
back to Assisi, they were not about to resume their lodging
in the shed at the Portiuncula; for what reason we are not
told ;
perhaps the permission to do so had been temporarily
withdrawn from them. They went slowly upon their way,
and lingered, Celano tells us, for a fortnight near the town
of Orta, preaching daily in the city, and begging their
food. They then proceeded " by cities and castles ; " now
entering a walled and guarded mediaeval town, where, in the
piazza, where the markets are held, the brethren in their
brown habits stood round their leader as he poured forth
addresses, upon the astonished
burning from his heart,
crowd ; now up the steep paths to some great feudal
toiling

castle where the men-at-arms would wonder and gibe at

them as they preached of righteousness, temperance, and
judgment to come. The words of Francis found a ready
response, however, in these untamed hearts, and we hear of
one whole castle and lady, ofificers and retainers,
full, lord
casting themselves at the feet of Francis, and begging to be
allowed to follow him in the path of perfect renunciation.
It was this which startled Francis into the foundation of his
Third Order, an order intended for laymen and laywomen,
living in the world, and requiring no sacrifice beyond that
of the heart. S. Francis was too wise in his perfect natural-
^
86 Lives of the Saints. \q>ch.

ness and sincerity, to believe it possible that the common

uses of the world could be abandoned, and the ordinary
duties thrown by a sudden impulse such as this
away,
affecting a crowd. He
calmed down his excited audience
by the promise of a rule to be established for them, and an
order into which they could enter without shaking off the
responsibilities and ties of their position in the world.
When S. Francis and his companions reached the neigh-
bourhood of Assisi, they stopped at a deserted hut on the
wayside, at a place called Rivo-Torto, and there they re-
mained for some time. Here their food seems to have
consisted for the most part of biscuits only, bread having
failed in their daily quests. It was apparently while living

in this place that the brethren asked from their leader a

form of prayer. They had no ecclesiastical books out of
which to say the canonical hours ; and they were, moreover,
untrained laymen, not accustomed to the elaborate offices of
the clergy. The prayers S. Francis prescribed to them
were the " Our Father," and the prayer, " \Ve adore Thee, O
Christ, in all Thy churches which are in all the world, and
we bless Thee, because Thou hast by Thy Holy Cross
redeemed the world." When they saw cross or church,
however far off, they knelt down and humbly repeated these
two prayers — their entire vocabulary of worship.

After a stay of some time at Rivo-Torto, the little church

and plot of ground surrounding it at the Portiuncula was
given to S. Francis by the Benedictines of Subiaco, to whom
it belonged, and the little confraternity moved to it, as their
place of permanent rest. The Portiuncula thus became the
cradle and home of the Franciscan Order, henceforth as
famous as Monte Subiaco itself.

In this house the brethren do not seem to have had any

formal division of their time — so many hours for study,
so many for work, so many for manual labour —as was

•aE<-
the case in the older Orders. They were to hear mass once
a day if possible ; they went andcame freely, begging yet
bestowing ;
giving to any whom they might encounter, who
were as poor as themselves, of that bread of charity, which,
was as the bread of angels.
to Francis, Money they were
bound not to touch under any conditions, not even for the
relief of the poor.

By this time, not much more than three years from the
moment when the pale penitent was hooted through Assisi
amid the derisive shouts of the people, and driven with
blows and curses into confinement in his own father's house,
we find that it had already become his custom on Sunday to
preach in the Cathedral, and that, from his little convent at
the Portiuncula, Francis had risen into influence in the
whole country. Already the mind of the people, so slow to
admit, but so ready to accommodate itself to anything
novel, had used itself to the sight of the brethren in their
snuff-coloured habits, and, leaping from one extreme to the
other, instead of madmen, began to consider them saints.
" Because they possessed nothing earthly," says Bonaven-
tura, " loved nothing earthly, and feared to lose nothing
earthly, they were secure in all places ; troubled by no fears,
distracted by no cares, they lived without trouble of mind,
waiting without solicitude for the coming day, or the night's
lodging."
We find many little anecdotes of the life of S. Francis at
this period in the " Fioretti." In every sketch the popular
chronicler gives of the interior of the convent, there is some
glimpse of S. Francis stealing out into the wood to pray.
This wood, in the narrative, occupies the position which a
secluded convent garden holds in monastic stories. Pro-
bably the Portiuncula had not even such a refuge. There
is a little door which leads to the wood in the convent wall,
and through it we see constantly the figure of Francis
 88 Lives of the Saints. locx.t,.

pass, to disappear within the sacred, mysterious woodland

depths.
In the community at this time there was a certain
Brother Richerio, one of the humbler members of the com-
munity, who had a great longing for the affection of Francis,
and at the same time entertained one of those timid fancies
which so often accompany love, that for some secret reason
Francis thought badly of him and did not return his regard.
The poor brother went sadly about his usual occupations,
turning over and over, in troubled musings, the doubt which
embittered his life. One day, as he passed the cell where
his leader was praying, Francis suddenly called him. " Let
not this temptation disturb you, my son," he said, with his
natural cordial tenderness; "for you are dear to me, and
even amongst those whom I hold most dear. You know
that you are worthy of my friendship, therefore come to me
in confidence whensoever you will, and from friendship
learn faith."'

On another occasion the same insight into the feelings of

others, occasioned by his warm sympathy, made S. Francis
aware that one of the brethren, who had injured his health
by excessive fasting, was " so pinched with hunger, that on
a certain night he was unable to sleep. He got up imme-
diately, took some bread, and, going to the cell of the
starving brother, began to eat, inviting him to share his
frugal supper. The sufferer, thus delivered from the shame
of yielding to his own innocent and natural craving, ate,
and was rescued from that supremacy of bodily sensations
which, though few ascetics have confessed it, as often ac-
companies extreme abstinence as indulgence. This truth
S. Francis seems to have perceived for others, if not for

himself. He called the brethren together in the morning,

and them what had passed, recommending, it would
told
seem, his own example to their imitation, that they might

^ .
^
* ^
Oct. 4.]
S. Francis of Assist. 89

succour each other when austerity went beyond due Umits ;

but also exhorting them to " follow discretion, which is the
charioteer of all virtues."

We may add one more incident, and that of a different

kind, to the particulars of the hfe of our saint in this its

second phase. He
had renounced all things, not only the
lusts of the flesh, if they had ever existed in him, but also

the tenderer charm of the affections, which were so much

more likely to hold fast such a spirit. He had given up
without hesitation, as would appear, all the indefinite sweet-
ness of youthful hopes. But, nevertheless, he was still
young, still a man, with human instincts and wishes, the
tenderest nature, and an imagination full of all the warmth
and grace of his age and his country. It does not appear
that he ever put into words the musings which caught him
unawares. But one night he rose suddenly from the
earthen floor, which was his bed, and rushed out into the
night in an access of passion and despair. A certain bro-
ther who was praying in his cell, peering, wondering, through
his little window, saw him heap up seven little figures of
snow in the clear moonhght. " Here is thy wife," he said
to himself; "these four are thy sons and daughters, the
other two are thy servant and handmaid ; and for all these
thou art bound to provide. Make haste, then, and provide
clothing for them, lest they perish with cold. But if the
care of so many trouble thee, be thou careful to serve the
Lord alone." What piteous human yearning is manifested
in this little scene The gentle heart, all sympathy and
!

love, for one moment had gone forth in imagination to see

himself by the fireside with a loving wife and little ones
about his knee; for onemoment the agony of seeing the ten-
derest, hohest love that God has planted on earth, cast
aside by him for the greater love of God, made itself felt.
Was there some face of an Assisian maiden loved of old that

* ^
>^-

90 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 4.

rose then to haunt him ? Or was it but an ideal vision, like

those of the unborn faces of children, that thus presented
itself before him ? We cannot tell. Francis says no word
of the trial that goes on in his heart. He dissipates the
dream by the chill touch of the snow, and then the curtain
of prayer and silence falls over him, and the convent walls
close black around.
It is a remarkable peculiarity of the history of S. Francis,
that whereas every Saint in the calendar, from S. Antony
downwards, is sometimes troubled with visions of voluptuous
is tempted by the
delight, only Francis, in his pure dreams,
modest joys of wife and children, the most legitimate and
tenderest love.
In the meantime the first twelve had begun to grow into
a great army ; and as soon as the new members were suffi-

ciently well known to make apparent any special talents there

might be in them, they were sent forth, two and two, into new
places, those Avho could preach being licensed by S. Francis,

according to the power given him by Pope Innocent. They

followed the evangelical precept with strict literalness. If

there was a priest who would receive them, they went to

that priest if not, they asked for the most worthy in the
\

place, and dwelt with him till they had drawn a little band of
new brethren round them, and a habitation had to be found
for yet another community.
The first Chapter of the Order took place, apparently, in
1 2 12, only six years from the conversion of S. Francis. This
general assembly was a most necessary refreshment to the
brethren, who had wandered over the face of the country,
from shore to shore, during all winter and spring. And
henceforth, every Pentecost saw the Order reassemble, at
first in little groups, Assisians, Perugians, neighbours from
all the towns of Umbria, but growing daily, till thousands
came to camp around the Portiuncula.

^-
 —

The year 1212 saw a new development of the Order, in

the estabhshment of a sisterhood in connection with the
Society. The story of S. Clara has been already given
(Aug. 12), and need not be repeated here. Clara was the
first fruits of the Mendicant Order amongst women, the
founder of the Poor Clares, the second Order of S. Francis.

The application of the new Rule, which was based not only
upon individual but corporate poverty, was harder as applied
to women than it was to men. The brides of Christ were
cloistered, and unable to go out and beg their daily bread,
as were their brethren ; for religious fervour, even at its

highest pitch, had not yet conceived the possibility of a young

and beautiful girl like Clara going forth publicly to serve the
world, and receive from it her humble subsistence. To
Clara and her sisters was given the passive part ; theirs it

was to support the brethren by their prayers, to stand by and

watch and offer the sacrifice of all things, spending their time
in supplications for a world which did not pray for itself, as
the brethren spent their lives and strength in preaching and
active succour.
This was the beginning of one of thode tender and touching
friendships which are to the student of history like green
spots in the desert ; and which give to the man and the
woman thus voluntarily separated from all the joys of life a
certain human consolation in the midst of their hardships.
The two saints can have seen each other but seldom, for it was
one of the express stipulations of the Franciscan Rule that the
friars should refrain from all society with women, and have only

the most sparing and reserved intercourse even with their

sisters in religion. And Francis was no priest, directing the
spiritual life of his daughter in the faith. But he sent to her
to ask enlightenment from her prayers, when any difl!iculty

was in his way. He went to see her when he was in trouble.

That he was sure of her sympathy in all things, of her prayers

(j« _ ^
*-

92 Lives of the Saints. [o^.^.

and spiritual aid, whatsoever he might be doing, wheresoever

he might be, no doubt was sweet to Francis in all his labours
and trials. As he walked many a weary day past the church
of S. Damian, every stone of which was familiar to him,
and many laid with his own hands, must not his heart have
warmed at the thought of the sister within, safe from all con-
flict with the world, upon whose fellow-feeling he could rely
as absolutely as man can rely only on woman ? The world
has jeered from its earliest age at the possibility of such
friendships,and yet they have always existed one of the —
most exquisite and delicate of earthly ties. Gazing back into
that far distance over the graves, not only of those two
friends, but of a hundred succeeding generations, a tear of
sympathy comes into the student's eye. He is glad to be-
lieve that, all those years, Francis could see in his comings
and goings the cloister of S. Clara ; and that this sacred gleam
of human fellowship — love purified of all self-seeking, tender,
visionary, celestial affection — sweetened their solitary lives.
The year 1212 had been a most eventful one in his life.

He had been able to recognize and identify his Order as

rapidly rising in importance, sanctioned by the Pope, though
as yet only verbally, and attracting the sympathy and atten-
tion of the Church. His bishop, the Cardinal of San Paolo,
and other great ecclesiastics, had been moved by the truth
and fervour of the man to recognize in him one of those born
reformers who arise now and then in the world. His tirst
great difficulties were over ; and the community, even were
he taken away from it, was strong enough and sufficiently
well organized to stand by itself. In these circumstances it

was not of rest that he thought. He resolved on undertaking

a mission in the East, in the track of the Crusaders. He set
out, but the attempt failed, and he returned for the Pente-
costal Chapter without having accomplished anything. Next
year he set out for Spain, to preach to, and, as he hoped.

>J<-
* »i(

Oct. 4.]
S. Francis of A ssisi. 93

convert, the Moors. But this expedition was likewise without

result. About the time of his return from Spain, Francis
met and made the acquaintance of Cardinal Ugolino, Bishop
of Ostia, who afterwards became the first protector of the
Order. He was the Pope's legate in Florence. Ugolino
seems to have persuaded S. Francis to abandon, at least for
the present, his fmitless expedition, and to confine his atten-
tion to the consolidation of the Order at home. A Council
was to be held in Rome in the folloAving year, and no better
opportunity could be found for the final settlement of the
important business of obtaining a written confirmation of the
rule.

In 1 2 15 the fourth great Lateran Council assembled, and

in it the rule of the Franciscans was publicly sanctioned by
Innocent III. and the assembled bishops. was not even
It

now confirmed by a bull, as was afterwards done by Inno-

cent's successor, but a public recognition was accorded it,

which sufiiced for the complete estabHshment of the Order in

Italy.

It is supposed to be there that S. Dominic and S. Francis

met. Dominic, whilst praying in a church in Rome, saw, in
vision, our Lord rise from the right hand of the Father in
wrath, wearied at last with the contradiction of sinners, with
a terrible aspect, and three lances in his hand, each one of
which was destined for the extermination of a special
class of offenders. But while the dreamer gazed at this

awful spectacle, the Virgin Mother arose and pleaded

for the world, declaring that she had two faitliful servants
whom she would send forth into the world to bring sinners
to the feet of the Saviour. One of these was Dominic him-
self ; the other was a poor man, meanly clad, whom he had
never seen before. This vision deeply impressed the devout
Spaniard. Next morning, while he mused on the dream
which had been sent to him, his eye fell all at once upon a

4, -^
*-

94 Lives of the Saints. \_oo..i,.

stranger in a brown tunic, of aspect humble and modest,

coming same church to pray. Dominic at once ran
to the
to him, fell on his neck, and kissed him, saying "Thou art :

my companion thy work and mine is the same. If we stand

;

by each other, nothing can prevail against us."

The silent years between 12 14 and 1219 contain no public
incidents in the life of S. Francis, but the narrative abounds
in beautiful stories of his private life, of his tenderness,
kindness, humanity, and of the beautiful courtesy of his
character. He Avas a man overflowing with sympathy for
man and beast, for all God's creatures, wherever and howso-
ever he encountered them. Not only was every man his
brother, but every animal, the sheep in the fields, the birds
in the branches, the brother-ass on which he rode, the sister-

bees which took refuge in his kind protection. He was the

friend of everything that suffered or rejoiced ; no emotion
went beyond his sympathy ; his heart rose to see the glad-
ness of nature, and melted over the distresses of the smallest
and meanest creature on the face of the earth. Some of the
anecdotes related of him in his relation to the dumb animals
are as follows.
" The blessed Francis, returning from beyond the sea, was
travelling through the Marches of Venice, and heard a vast
multitude of birds singing among the bushes. And when he
saw them he said to his companions, '
Our sisters, the birds,
are praising their Maker. Let us then go into their midst
and sing to the Lord the Canonical Hours.' And when
they had gone into their midst, the birds moved not from
the place but as, on account of their chirping and twit-
;

tering, the brethren were not able to hear each other, the

holy man turned to the birds and said, Sisters, cease your '

song until we have rendered our bounden praise to God.'

And they at once were silent, and when the praises were
finished resumed their song."

*-
>h~

f-'^-
<.^^
5i^>^C\
.ft

S. FRANCIS OP ASSISI PREACHING TO THE BIRDS.

From a Painting by Giotto.

Oct. 4.
 On another occasion, when he was preaching in the town
of Alvia, the swallows, with their perpetual screaming, in-

commoded the audience. Francis had gone up to a piece

of high ground, that he might be seen of all, and had asked
for silence from the assembled people. But the birds were
flitting all about in aiiy circles, making their nests, chirping,

and calling to each other overhead in the blue heaven of

the Italian sky. When it became apparent that these sweet
disturbers of the peace prevented their human companions
from hearing the word of God, the preacher turned and
courteously saluted the little nest-builders. " My sisters,"

he said, " it is now time that I should speak. Since you

have had your say, listen now in your turn to the word of

God, and be silent till the sermon is finished." It is need-

less to say that he was perfectly obeyed.
Other instances of the sense of safety which the very
presence of so holy and kind a soul diffused around him
abound in the early biographies. One day, at the village
of Gubbio, a live leveret was brought to him, probably as
part of his day's provision. When he saw the little crea-
ture, his gentle heart was moved to pity. " Little brother

leveret, come to me," he said ;

" why didst thou suffer thy-
self to be taken?" The trembling animal immediately
escaped out of the hands of the brother who held it, and
fled to Francis, taking refuge in the folds of his gown. From
this shelter he disentangled it, set it free on the ground, and
gave it leave to depart. The same story is told of a wild
rabbit, which took refuge with him in an island on the lake
of Perugia. " It still returned into the father's bosom, as it

it had some hidden sense of the pitifulness of his heart,"

says Bonaventura.
"Once he was seated in a little boat on the Lake of Rieti,
near a certain part, when a fisherman, catching a large tench,
brought it to Francis. And he, taking it kindly and cheer-

-^
*-

96 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 4.

fully, began to call it brother, and putting it into the water

again, he began devoutly to bless the name of God ; and all

the while that he continued in prayer the fish played about

in the water round the boat, and departed not from the spot
till the saint of God gave him leave."
Lambs were the special objects of his regard. On one
occasion, while walking silently along the road in one of his
many journeys, he noticed a single lamb feeding amidst a
herd of goats. It was like our Lord amidst the Pharisees,
he thought ; and he could not bear to leave the emblem of
his Master in the midst of the rude bearded flock. But
Francis had nothing to offer as the price of it, except his
brown habit. A merchant coming up, and hearing his diffi-

culty, bought the lamb and presented it to Francis. It was

near the city of Osimo, where he was going to preach, and
he resumed his journey with joy and thanks, leading with
him the white lamb that was like his Lord. The bishop
wondered at this unusual addition to the party ; but Francis
made his little companion the subject of his discourse, and
so set forth the divine story as to move all hearts. When,
however, Francis and his brethren had got as far as San Seve-

rino on their further way, the lamb became something of a

burthen to the travellers, and was finally left at a convent
with a sisters, who received the charge of it
community of
with joy.Some time after, the sisters sent to the saint a
gown made of its wool, which he received with unfeigned
delight. At home, at the Portiuncula, a lamb was one of
his daily companions. " The holy man taught it that it

should always praise God, and give no offence to the

brethren," says the simple narrative.
He was overtaken by darkness one night with a com
panion on the borders of the Po. The road was dangerous,
and the river swollen. The brother who accompanied
Francis was seized with alarm as the darkness closed around

*-
^ .
_ ^
Oct. 4.] S. Francis of A ssisi. 97

them. " Father, pray that we may be delivered from this

peril," he cried. " God is powerful," answered Francis ;
" if

it please Him to dispel the darkness and bestow on us the

blessing of light, He will do so." He had scarcely spoken
the words when a flash of summer lightning kindled the skies,
exhibited to them the rolHng stream, the road, and the dis-
tant hostel to which they were bound. Then the wayfarers
lifted up their voices and sang the praises of God,
One night Francis lay in his weak and worn with cell,

fever, when there came upon him a longing to hear some

music. Fie had loved it from his earliest days, and it was a
necessity to his poetic nature. He said nothing, however,
of the longing in his breast. " The decorum of religion,"
says Bonaventura, *'
forbade his asking for it at the hand of
man;" and it is imagine that Brothers Bernard
difficult to

or Elias, even had he asked it of them, could have charmed

his ear with harp or lute. But as he lay awake one night in
his weakness, suddenly his desire was granted to him. " He
heard the sound of a harp, of wonderful harmony, and
most sweet melody." The sound went and came, as if
the player were moving to and fro under the convent
windows.
In the year 12 19 took place a famous Chapter of the
whole Order, when probably every member of the society
was present at Assisi. It was the first time that an actual
numerical estimate of the strength of the Order was made,
and then, according to numerous testimonies, it amounted
to five thousand. A certain need of general legislation seems
to have shown itself, and necessitated such a great assembly.
The brethren came pouring in at Pentecost from all sides,

without purse or penny to put therein among the entire

crowd, the end of their journey being a little church and
convent, poor as themselves, where, instead of a supply of
provisions enough for so great a multitude, there was not
VOL. XI. y
*- ^
 8

^
9 Lives of the Saints. foct.4.

store enough of fragmentslaid up to sustain the founder and

beyond a single day.
his little nucleus of friars
The Portiuncula is situated on one of the lowest slopes of
the Apennine hills, and below stretches the plain, blazing
under the Italian sun, which was the only guest-chamber
Francis could provide for his visitors. Here they erected a
quantity of little tents made of straw thatch, or matting and
rushes \ such shelters from the sun as may still be seen about
the Italian fields rudely propped up on posts, as no doubt
were the huts of the brethren. From this peculiarity the

Chapter derives its name, Siorearum — the assembly of the

straw huts. They were arranged, we are told, in distinct
lines, according to the provinces from which the brethren
came. The scene is set before us in the "Fioretti" with all the
reahty which Avould naturally belong to the narrative of an
eye-witness. And if we can trust the anonymous chronicler.
Cardinal Ugolino was present, and also S. Dominic, watching
with curious, critical eyes, how the other Order was man-
aged. Francis had made no provision for the crowd which
surrounded him he had dared to throw his entire brother-
;

hood upon the bounty of Providence, and met them cheer-

fully, without a crust to give them, with a faith which, even
to his fellow saint, seems to have for the moment appeared
more rash than sublime. With many illustrious visitors

looking on, S. Francis addressed his brethren camped

around him, swarming among the narrow passages that
divided the coverts of straw :
" My children," he said, " we
have promised great things to God, and greater things still

have we been promised by God ; let us observe those things

that we have promised Him, and He for His part will surely

perform what He has undertaken."

As he spoke, there were seen trains of horses and waggons
coming towards the Portiuncula. A sudden impulse of
generosity and charity had moved the citizens of Perugia,

^
 Oct. 4.]
'^- Francis of Assisi. 99

Spoleto, Foligno, and Assisi to send supplies of provisions

to the assembled friars. Bread, wine, beans, and game
poured into the camp, as though the Lord had made
windows in heaven, and had showered abundance where
before was dearth. S. Dominic seeing this, felt that he had

been wrong in doubting the faith of Francis and the bounty

of Providence, and, falling on his knees before the saint,
exclaimed, " Truly, God has a special care for this poor
family, and I knew it not."
In this great conclave the organization of the Order was,
for the first time, formally established. " Ministers were
elected and sent out with the brethren into all the provinces
of the world in which the Catholic faith is observed," say
the Three Companions.
Francis had theoretically established the office of Minister
when he framed his rule, and had chosep the title in
accordance with the humility which it was his desire
should always guide his followers. He would not permit
them assume the title of abbot or prior, but desired that
to
the Superior of each community should be simply the
Guardian, and the Provincial the Minister or servant of all.
But though these offices had been theoretically established,
this is the first occasion of the institution of members of
the community to them. The community had grown too
extensive to be kept any longer under one single head.
Each Provincial was to rule the guardians of the several
convents in his province, and the Provincials were re-

sponsible to the General or head of the whole Order at

Assisi.

As soon as the Chapter was over, S. Francis set out on his

long-cherished mission to the East. The crusading army
under the saintly king Louis was then in Egypt, occupied at
the time in the siege of Damietta. S. Francis sailed for
Egypt, entered the Christian host, and passed daringly

* ^— ->i,
*-

lOO Lives of the Saints. [Oct.4.

through the open country swept by Arabs, with the de-

liberate purpose of being taken prisoner and confronted
with the Sultan, Melek-el-Khamed. He was captured and
brought to the Sultan, Avhen he at once opened his mouth
and preached to him Christ crucified. The Arab sat and
listened, with admiration of the courage and enthusiasm of
the Christian fakeer, but no results followed, and when, after
a stay of a few days in the Moslem army, Francis sadly
became aware that his preaching was ineffectual, he with-
drew to the Christian army, the Sultan giving him free leave
to dej^art, and S. Francis, " seeing that he could not gain
much fruit in these parts, resolved to return home."' He
accordingly abandoned the unfruitful mission, and returned
by ship to Venice. He would seem to have been met at
Venice by some of the brethren, who conducted him home.
Among them, we are told, was a certain Leonard, a man of
noble family of Assisi. One day as they took their journey
homewards, Francis, worn out with his fatigues, mounted
an ass to relieve the tedium of the way, and Fra Leonardo
walked behind him in silence. He too was weary, and he
mused in sullen anger at the fact that he, a noble, was
obliged to trudge behind the ass on which the merchant's
son was seated.
"It is true," said Francis, suddenly getting down; "1
ride and you walk, and this is against all congruity." He had
read his thoughts in the cloudy brow, and eye that shunned
his kind glance.
As S. Francis was on his way back to Assisi, he reached
Bologna. His friend, Cardinal Ugolino, was there, in the
discharge of a mission from the Pope to Lombardy ; and
there, moreover, was a community of the Minorites, for
which, since Francis had last been there, a new house had
been built. The community had been established nine years
before, by Brother Bernard ; and it had grown till the little

>4<-
 1

^ ^

Oct. 4.]
S. Francis of Assisi. 10

house in which it had first settled had become too small to

contain it.

Francis arrived in Bologna on the Feast of the Assumption,

1220. The first act of the traveller was, not to seek out his
friends and brethren and rest from his fatigues, but to make
his way to the Piazza, to preach to the people the precious
Word of God. A certain Thomas of Spoleto, at that time
student at Bologna, afterwards archdeacon of the cathedral
in his native town, has left us an account of the scene. He
went brown friar to the square before the little
after the
palace, and watched him closely with curious eyes. His
bodily presence was mean, the student thought, his person
contemptible, his looks unimposing. He stood up amid the
intent and eager crowd, where, among peaceable citizens,
and women and children, were the ruffling retainers of the
nobles, and took for his text the words, "Angels, Men, Devils."
The Word of God poured like a stream of fire from the
mouth of the preacher, and was so effectual that many
nobles whose dissensions kept the whole local world in
misery, and filled the streets with blood, gave each other
their hands for the moment and made temporary peace in
the softening of their hearts.
When he had ended, the crowd rolled after Francis, with
tears and cries of joy, as he humbly took his way to the
palace of the cardinal legate, his firm and ancient ally.

On turning round at the palace gates, the eyes of the lover

of poverty encountered a sumptuous building, newly erected,
and bearing all the evidence of wealth. It was the convent
of the Minorites, the spectators told him. S. Francis,
thunderstruck by this discoveiy, averted his face with
indignant and vehement emotion. "What?" he cried; "is
this the house of Christ's poor? Have the Brothers Minor
such great and splendid palaces? I do not recognize this

as a house of ours, and I cannot acknowledge as my

^ ^
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I02 Lives of the Saints. \oc\..^.

brethren those who live in it." When he had uttered these

words, he commanded all who would retain the name of
Minor to quit the house, and leave to the rich the things
which belonged to them. So indignant was he, and fierce
with the sudden anger of the naturally gentle, that the breth-
ren in terror precipitated themselves out of their fine house,
even the sick getting themselves carried out on the shoulders
of the strong, and laid down anywhere in the open air, rather
than encounter the gentle father's sudden fury.
The cardinal, however, came in at this moment of con-
fusion and distress. He interfered on behalf of the unfortu-
nates, who lay gasping and pallid on the stones, jolted out of
breath by their rapid descent. He took his friend aside,
and represented to him, with all the kindly special pleading
of a peacemaker, that size and space could hurt no man,
that the sick had better air, the studious more perfect quiet,
in the large house ; that, after all, it did not belong to the
brethren at all, but to the benefactor who had built it for
them, and permitted them the use of it ; and finally, when
all other arguments failed to satisfy the disturbed founder,
that he himself would remove all difficulties by taking pos-
session of the building in the name of Rome. Subdued,
but not overcome, Francis permitted the sick folk to be
carried back to their quarters. But he would not himself
enter the too splendid house. He went away, sad and
wroth, and took shelter with the Dominicans. With them
he dwelt apart for some days, sore and heavy at heart. One
of the Preaching Friars, compassionating not only the solitary
lodger in his convent, but also the abashed and penitent
Minors, took upon him to persuade the master to return to
his disciples. After much discussion, Francis forgave the
brethren, but not the erring minister, Giovanni de Stiacchia,
who had not only permitted this sumptuous building to be
erected, but had set up a school of study more adapted to

^-
 Oct. 4.] S. Francis of A ssisi. 103

the atmosphere of an university than to the rule of the

Order. Francis dissolved the school, enjoined the monks to
and preaching, and not towards
turn their thoughts to prayer
the accumulation of vain knowledge and went his way, \

leaving pardon behind him, but carrying with him the first
sharp sting of division —the sense that, already, degeneration
and innovation had stolen into his Order. It would seem
that, as soon as his back was turned, Brother Giovanni re-

estabhshed his school.

After this stormy episode came a time of peace. Cardinal
Ugolino and Francis retired together to a little hermitage
among the hills, belonging to the CamaldoHtes, and there
dwelt together for some little time in meditation and
devotion.
Fortified by this retreat, S. Francis descended from the
hills to his convent just before the assembling of the Chapter
on the Feast of S. Michael. When the pilgrim appeared at
his favourite convent, he perceived EHas, who had been
constituted head of the Order, come forth to welcome him,
" in a careful and elaborate dress," long hood, wide sleeves,
and a rich fringe to his garments. Francis called at once for
a tunic like that of Elias, and putting it on, with exaggerated
attention to its picturesque effect, took upon himself, at the
same time, all the airs of a lofty dignity, and saluted the
brethren with a " Good morrow, sirs, " instead of with the cus-
tomary " Peace be with you." Then he threw off the dainty
robe, saying :
" This becomes a false brother ;" and resuming
his own worn and ragged gown, seated himself in the midst
of the brethren. After this, S. Francis repealed the inno-
vations which Elias had introduced into the Order, with one
exception — Elias had forbidden the eating of meat by the
Minorites ; this piece of asceticism Francis allowed, but with
hesitation.
In the Chapter which followed, the historians of the Order

^- .
—4,
 —
*-

I04 Lives of the Saints. [Od. 4.

assert that Elias was set aside from his place, and Pietro de
Catania, one of the earliest of Francis's followers, elected in
his stead.At the same time, the character of Elias must
have commanded a certain respect from Francis, who saw
that Elias was a man of restless and masterful spirit, yet could
not fail admire his prudence, knowledge of the world, and
to
enthusiastic asceticism. It was in the year 122 1 that the

Third Order of the Franciscans came into being. When

S. Francis preached to those living in the world, he made

their ungodliness, their sinfulness, and absorption in worldly

cares, intolerable to them by his burning words, and the
universal compunction burst all bounds of prudence. But
he was himself too reasonable to permit all his converts to
precipitate themselves into the ascetic life of nun and friar.

He knew must still go on and fulfil its every-

that the world
day labours, whatever might be suggested by the enthusiasm
of a moment and he was not himself led away by any
;

fanatical impulse of proselytism. When the excited people

wept, and besought him to permit them to follow him, he
silenced them with tranquillizing words. " Remain in your
homes," he said, " and I will find for you a way of serving
God." That way was the Third Order. " He persuaded
the people to remain at home, and to live there in the fear of
God and the practice of Christian virtues, promising to make
out for them a form which they could keep without leaving
the condition of life to which God had called them." Thus
it was the object of the Third Order to meet the needs of

devout persons still living, and compelled by duty to live, in

the world ;
people who could not aspire to the cloister
but with hearts careful and troubled about many things, with
husbands and wives to think of, and houses and lands, with
the care and maintenance of children and dependents upon
their shoulders — who yet were inspired with a desire to serve
God above all.

*-
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Oct. 4.j
S. Francis of Assist. 105

The vow exacted was a simple and solemn promise to keep

God's commandments, and, over and above, to avoid balls
and theatres. The brethren were forbidden to bear arms,
except in case of danger to their country or the Church.
They were to avoid all oaths, except in matters of necessity.
Lawsuits were also forbidden them, and all the arts of conciH-
ation and peacemaking encouraged. On four days of the
week, moreover, they were to eat no meat. For their prayers,
they were to repeat seven times at each canonical hour, the
Lord's Prayer, followed by a Gloria Patri. In every place
where a congregation of the Third Order was estabhshed, a
priest, who was a member of the Society, Avas appointed to

be its overseer and guide. Each member, at his death, was

entitled to a funeral attended by all his brethren. There
were three grand masses said solemnly for the Brothers and
and dead, every year. It may
Sisters, alive easily be perceived
what a wonderful bond was thus created —a tie which con-
nected people of every class and condition, binding them
to mutual succour and support; and how incalculable
was the tacit aid given by this mass of lay supporters to
the action of the consecrated brethren, the Friars Minor
themselves. It rose into instant distinction and importance,
and was joined by a crowd of noble and powerful personages.
S. Louis of France, his mother and \\dfe, were all members of

it. And so was S. Elizabeth of Hungary, and many other

princesses, who, after lives of much Christian charity and
fervent devotion in their natural sphere, transplanted their
zeal and sanctity into the stricter enclosure of the professed
sisterhood. Wherever the Preaching Friars penetrated in
their absolute poverty, breaking upon the slumbering imagi-
nation and torpid faith of the world as with a sign from
heaven, the laity crowded into this religion, which was

possible, which did not require the renunciation of other

duties, and yet linked them to the hoHest men on earth, and

-*
 gave them the support of a definite rule. This great insti-
tution, however, was not the astute and elaborate scheme of
a great intelligence, but the sudden device of a tender. Chris-
tian spirit. It seems doubtful whether S. Francis was ever
aware what a fruitful idea he had initiated. His fertile and
inventive mind threw out great suggestions unconsciously.
The female branch of his Order was instituted, it is evident,
solely because of the one young enthusiast in whose piety
he interested himself with all the warmth that belonged to
his nature ; and the Third Order sprang into being in the
same curiously accidental way, that the brimmings-over of a
sudden and general spiritual impression might not be lost.
In 1 220 occurred a scene, curious and touching, on which
legend fondly dwells, a scene which bears some resemblance
to one in the life of S. Benedict. The great father of Western
Monachism, it will be remembered, had a dearly loved twin-
sister, Scholastica, whom he met only once a year. In the last

year of their lives Benedict supped with her one evening,

and when supper was ended rose to leave, but Scholastica
implored hira to stay and when he refused, she prayed to
;

God, and a storm burst over her convent which made it im-
possible for him to leave that night. They spent it in talking,
with radiant faces, of the heavenly joy which was to receive
both within a space of a few days,
S. Francis had a sister in religion, a woman who stood
tohim in the tender bonds of spiritual communion, and this
was S. Clara. This holy woman felt a great longing to be
with S. Francis and eat with him. But he constantly
refused. At length his companions, seeing how distressed
she was at his persistent refusal, said to him :
" Father, it

seemeth that this sternness is not in accordance with Divine

charity; hearken now unto Clara, a virgin, holy and beloved
of God. It is but a little thing that she asks of thee, to eat
with her ; and she, at thy preachin g, forsook all that the
world offers of joy, and society, and wealth."
»J<-
 Oct. 4.]
S. Francis of A ssisi. 107

Then S. Francis answered: "As it seemeth right to you,

so let it be. But in order that Clara may be very greatly

comforted, let the feast be held in the church of S. Mary of
the Angels, for it was therein that she took the vows and be-
came the bride of Christ."
When the appointed day arrived, S. Clara went forth from
her convent with one companion, and came to S. Mary of
the Angels, and took her place until the time of dinner.
S. Francis caused the table to be spread on the earth, and he
sat down beside S. Clara,and one of the companions of
S. Francis sat beside the nun who accompanied S. Clara;
and then all the rest of the company gathered themselves
round the table. During the first course, S. Francis began
to speak of God so sweetly, so tenderly, that all were rapt in
ecstasy, with eyes and hands raised to heaven, forgetful of
their meal, thinking only of God. Legend has vulgarised
this beautiful story, and adds that to the men of Assisi it

seemed as though the church was on fire, and they ran with
water to extinguish the flames, but found that the fire was
only the ardour of the devotion of those within.
When the repast was ended, S. Clara returned to S. Da-
mian's, greatly comforted. This was her only meeting, for
other purposes than those of ghostly counsel, with her friend
and and one can readily imagine the gentle excite-
father ;

ment which her bosom as she went down the hill to

filled

the Portiuncula. Clara had been only seventeen when she

made her last eventful journey to the shrine of S. Mary of the
Angels. Her last recollections of the humble little church
must have shown like a dream in the distance —the brethren
with their candles, the darkness outside, the shaving off of her
and the putting on of the coarse garment that severed
curls,

her connection with the world and its pomps. No doubt it

was a strange pleasure to the experienced nun to see once
more the place where, ten years before, she had made her
profession.
^ '^
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io8 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 4.

In the same year, S. Francis retired to Monte Gargano to

revise his rule, previous to submitting it to thePope for final
confirmation. When he had completed it, in the winter of
1223, he went to Rome, and there by the friendly patronage
of Cardinal Ugolino, he was introduced to the Pope, Hono-
rius III., and obtained the formal ratification of the Rule, in a
bull dated November 29. Having thus fulfilled the object
of his mission, Francis made another request to the Pope,
of a different character. He asked to be allowed to intro-
duce into the Franciscan churches representations of the
manger of Bethlehem at Christmas, so as to seize on the
popular imagination, and impress the unlearned. He ob-
tained the requisite permission, and then, going to Grecia, a
place not far from Assisi, he had a stable with manger
little

and straw erected in the church ox and ass were introduced,

;

and every arrangement was made, when the solemn Christmas

night arrived, for giving to the people a visible representation
of the occurrences of the night at Bethlehem. The people
crowded to the village church with tapers and torches, and
the friars, standing before the crib, chanted carols. In the
midst of this glowing and agitated scene, Francis himself
stood rapt by the side of the manger, in which his faith
could picture to itself the first cradle of his Lord, throughout
the whole night, sighing for joy, and filled with an inex-
pressible sweetness. His friend Giovanni, looking on, had
a vision while he stood apart gazing and wondering at the
saint. Giovanni said, or dreamed, that a beautiful child,

dead or in a trance, lay in the manger, and that as Francis

bent over the humble bed the babe slowly awoke, and
stretched out its arms towards him. It was the child Christ,
dead in the hearts of a careless people, dead in the slumber
of a wicked world, but waking up to a new life, and kindling
the whole drowsy universe around Him, at the touch and
breath of that supreme love which was in His servant's heart.

*-
 Oct. 4] S. Fraiicis of Assisi. 109

The crib of Bethlehem, since so popular in churches on

Christmas Eve, was another of those happy ideas of Francis
which exactly met a want of the times. Northern Italy was
infested with Manicheism, a heresy which denied the Incar-
nation, and which, by the austere lives of some of its pro-
fessors, excited the admiration of the ignorant. Francis, by
means of his representations of the scene at Bethlehem,
brought the Incarnation prominently before the minds of
the people ; the Holy Crib became an object of passionate
admiration, excited the devotion of the people, and proved
of incalculable service in the cause of the truth, doing in-
finitely more harm to heresy than all the burnings which
were cruelly dealt out to the Manichees by prelates and
emperors.
Another of Francis's happy inspirations was the com-
position of vernacular hymns ; he was the first to adopt
his native tongue as the language of sacred poetry, he
sounded the first notes of that music which was to reach
its richest expression in the mouth of Dante.
S. Francis had reached the age of forty-two when a mys-
terious event occurred in his life, which marked him out
among the other saints of the calendar in a special and
extraordinary manner. A certain noble, Orlando of Chiusi,
gave to S. Francis a rocky height, Monte Alverno, on his
lands, as a kind of hermitage and place of retreat. Francis
accepted the gift, and pleased with the description given him
of its solitary beauty, determined to spend there his autumnal
season of fasting before the Feast of S. Michael. He ac-
cordingly started with three of the brethren, Fra Matteo, Fra
Leo, and Fra Angelo ; the two latter are our informants con-
cerning much that occurred in his life, being two of the
three companions who \vrote his biography. The rough
road exhausted Francis, and before mounting the heights
of Alverno he threw himself to rest under an oak. Then,

* ^
*-

no Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 4.

suddenly, a multitude of birds came fluttering round him,

and threw themselves on their new lord with every demon-
stration of welcome upon his head and shoulders and arms,
;

in his cowl, and everywhere about him, while his compa-

nions stood by wondering. " Dearest brethren," said the
gentle apostle, with great delight and gladness, " I think
it must be pleasant to our Lord Jesus Christ that we should

dwell in this solitary place, since our brothers and sisters,

the birds, are so glad of our coming." Thus harmoniously,
with tender delight and joy, was the sacred seclusion begun.
A glorious Italian sky was above, the beech and chestnut
and here and there a mighty oak breaking the monotony of
the great rocks and wild ravines, and four poor men, as
dependent upon God as were the birds, held up aloft on the
tops of the hills to pray for the far-ofif world, of which not
even a sound could reach them in their solitude how im- —
pressive is the scene ! Francis withdrew himself to a little

cell under a beech tree that had been erected for him. They
were used to endure the weather, exposure to heat and
all

cold ;and food they were promised by Orlando, who had

given them the mountain. Thus they were left utterly free
for their devout occupations. Before this time Francis had
received a warning from heaven that he should live only two
years longer and it is evident that his strength was much
;

impaired, and the body of which all his life he had been so
careless was beginning to avenge itself. The clouds that
gather round the setting sun were collecting about him,
though he was still little over forty. We are informed by
Celano and the other early biographers that he had sought
the direction of God in his devotions by the method which
he had already so often adopted, of solemn reference to the
Holy Scriptures, the book being first solemnly laid upon
the altar, and the cross made over it. Each time the
volume opened at the narrative of the Lord's Passion.

*-
 '

— ^ *

Oct. 4.]
S. Francis of Assist. in

The deduction which Francis drew from this was, that

he was to pass into the kingdom of heaven, Uke his Master,
through much tribulation.
Francis had retired to his liut under the beech tree, as
already related, and there he remained rapt in prayer. His
disciples, who have left us an account of what followed, tell

us that they heard his voice in the wood by turns mur-

muring, not any eloquence of prayer, but those habitual
words which he said d;iy by day: "What art thou, dearest
Lord, my God? and what am I, a vile worm and unworthy
servant?" was on Holy Cross Day, Sept. 14, that this
It

ecstasy reached its highest point, when, whilst Francis

prayed, there appeared over him a great figure as of a
seraph.
This solemn and wonderful apparition had the arms ex-
tended, and feet conjoined, as if fixed to a cross. It had
six wings, two of which were elevated over the head, two
extended as if for flight, and the other two veiling the entire
body. " When the blessed servant of the Most High saw
the vision," says Thomas of Celano, " he was filled with
great wonder, but could not understand what its meaning
was. Much and greatly did he rejoice to see the benign
aspect with which the seraph gazed on him, for its beauty
was indescribable ; but the bitterness of the cross and pas-
sion thus shown to him filled him with grief and fear. Thus
he arose both sad and glad, and considered anxiously what
the vision might mean. And when he could find nothing by
which it might be understood, and the novelty of the vision
overwhelmed his heart, there began to appear in his hands
and feet signs of nails such as he had just seen in the holy
Crucified One who stood over him."
Celano wrote three years after the death of S. Francis.
The Three Companions give the story in almost the same
words, the only difference being that the seraph does not

^ 4f
>f<-

112 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 4.

itself display the form of the cross, but " carried within its

wings the form as of a beautiful man crucified, the hands and

feet extended as on a cross, showing forth most clearly the
image of our Lord Jesus. . . . And when this vision dis-

appeared a wonderful ardour remained in his soul and in ;

his flesh still more marvellously appeared the stigmata of the

Lord Jesus Christ, which the man of God carried concealed

to his death, not willing to publish the secret of God."

does not seem to have mentioned what had
S. Francis
happened to him to any one on the mountain, not even when
the time had come to go home, and the four went slowly
back, much hindered by his weakness. When they had re-
turned to the Portiuncula, he was still silent, though with
signs about him which attracted the wondering curiosity of
the brethren. Fra Illuminato, whose counsel had been
resorted to by Francis on several occasions, saw (Bona-
ventura tells us) that something marvellous had happened
to his master. " Brother," he said, " not only for thine own
sake, but for the sake of others, the Divine mysteries are
made known to thee. And therefore it seems right that
thou shouldst not conceal what thou hast heard and seen."
At these words, adds Bonaventura, the holy man was moved,
and related with great fear all the course of the vision, and
added that things had been said to him which he must
never repeat to mortal man.
The story of the stigmata is involved in some difficulties,
but there seems to be no reason for disbelieving in it.' It is

but an instance of the marvellous power exercised by the

soul, in a state of exaltation, over the body, when the latter

has been exhausted by asceticism, and is naturally, perhaps,

disposed towards hysteria.

'
The evidence has been very carefully and impartially sifted by Mrs. Oliphant in
her " Life of S. Francis," from which this biography is to a great extent condensed.

*-
 J

— >^

Oct. 4.
S. Francis of A ssisi. 113

After the return of S. Francis to his convent, he concen-

trated his failing powers on the continuance of his work. The
pitcher was broken, and the hght streamed through at every
crevice. " Of all his body he made a tongue," says Celano.
He spoke not only by the voice, which sometimes failed
through feebleness, but through the very sufferings of the
worn-out frame. Awould seem to have been
certain haste
upon him in this last remnant of
life. Death was coming,
his
but so long as God had work for him to do, he would not
suffer himself to rest. Francis suffered from loss of sight,
and in the hopes of having this removed, endured cautery.
The operation took place at Rieti, and there he remained
some time. He was on his way home, and had reached the
town of Nursia, at the foot of the Apennines, when his com-
panions saw that his remaining strength was leaving him, and
that the shadow of death was falling upon him. There they
therefore halted ; but the people of Assisi, in terror lest their

saint should die elsewhere than within their walls, sent to

insist on his being brought home ; and the dying man was
conducted to the bishop's palace in Assisi, in the midst
of a cavalcade sent by the Senate to meet and guard him.
A few days before his death he had himself carried to the
Portiuncula. As the litter-bearers, with their burden, pro-
gressing slowly down the hill, came in sight of that humble
but blessed spot, Francis, turning to the group of brethren
that surrounded him, warned them to hold this cradle of the
Order and honour. " See, my sons," said
in all reverence
the dying father, " that ye never give up this place." Pro-
bably it was at the same time, and before entering the humble
house he loved so well, that he caused his bearers to set down
the on the ground, and turning to where Assisi, the
litter

home of his youth, rose white upon the hill, gave his blessing
to the town which had nurtured and cherished him.
When he had entered the convent, he betook himself to
VOL. XI. 8
^ .
^
 —
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114 Lives of the Samts. \,ot^.^.

the other duties of a dying man. He called for pen and ink,
and with Angelo sitting by his bedside to write, dictated his

last will. It is not so much a will as a record. Its chief

purpose seems to have been to impress on the minds of his

spiritual heirs, with a prevision of the strifes which were
coming, the schisms that would tear the young society, the
duty of absolute obedience to the principles of the Rule.
When S. Francis had thus finished all his external busi-

ness, he turned to the lesser circle of the convent, and of his

own There was a lady who was dear to him,
private friends.
a certain Signora Giacobba di Settisoli, and he bade Angelo
write a letter to her at his dictation, begging her to come to
him. Angelo resumed his pen and wrote :

" I would thou shouldest know, dearest friend, that the

Blessed Christ hath, by His grace, revealed to me that the

end of my life is near at hand. Wherefore, if thou wouldest
find me alive, when thou hast received this letter, hasten to
come to S. Mary of the Angels. For, shouldest thou come
after Saturday, thou wilt not find me living. And bring with
thee cloth, or haircloth, in whicli to wrap my body, and wax
for my burying. I pray thee, also, to bring me the cakes
which thou wast wont to give me when I was sick at
Rome."
When he had gone thus far, he stopped short, raised his
eyes to heaven, and bade the writer cease, adding that Gia-
cobba was already on the way, bringing all that he desired.
Almost immediately the porter came to announce her arrival,
with her sons and servants, and to ask whether she should
be admitted. The cakes he had asked for were made of
almonds and honey almond rock.— There is something
infinitely touching in this movement of human weakness
the one last simple, child-like liking, half appetite, half remi-
niscence, stimulated by the aft'ectionate wish to give his
friend something to do for him.

!<-
*^ — ^

Oct. 4.]
S. Frmicis of Assisi. 115

This story is only told by Wadding, the late annalist, who

adds that Giacobba ministered to her friend during the few
days that he lived but the Bollandists doubt the truth of the
:

story.They question whether S. Francis, after so urgently

commending to the brethren the observance of his Rule,
would allow of the transgression of one of its laws towards
liimself, for it is strictly forbidden that a woman should enter
the doors of a convent of friars. There can be no doubt,
however, about the authenticity of the interrupted letter,
whether was thrown aside by reason of weakness, or
it

whether it was indeed anticipated by the arrival of the

person to whom it was addressed.
It is related by Pisanus that S. Francis called all the breth-

ren to sup with him the night before he died broke bread, ;

after blessing it, and distributed it among them, but that

Elias, the traitor, refused to eat, and went out. This story
deserves no credence ; it was invented at the time when a
superstitious effort was made to represent the life of S. Francis
as a reproduction, even in minute details, of the life of Christ.
The no doubt, that he summoned to him all
truth was,
the brethren, and gavethem his dying advice and blessing.
When he had said all he had to say, he commanded thfe
Gospels to be brought to him, and the passage to be read
beginning, "Before the Feast of the Passover," the commence-
ment of the 13th chapter of S. John. When the reading was
ended, he began, with broken voice, to sing, "Voce mea ad
Dominum clamavi," the 141st Psalm (A. V. 142) :
" 1 cried

unto the Lord with my voice; yea, even unto the Lord did I

make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before

him : and showed him of my trouble. When my spirit was
in heaviness thou knewest my path : in the way wherein I

walked have they privily laid a snare for me. I looked also
upon my right hand and saw there was no man that would
:

know me. I had no place to flee unto and no man cared :

^ ^
 for my soul. I cried unto thee, O Lord, and said : thou
art my hope and my portion in the land of the living."
Such, so far as any record informs us, were the last words
ofS. Francis.
Sucli was the end of the life of S. Francis of Assisi, a life

filled with one great master-thought, which dominated all

other motives of humanity and impulses of nature — the

desire to be like Christ. He died on Saturday, October
4th, and he was buried in the Cathedral of Assisi on the
following day.
According to body of S. Francis lies under
tradition, the

the high altar, but no one knows the precise spot of his
grave ; and a mysterious legend has crept about, whispered
in the twilight for ages, that far underneath, lower even than
the subterranean church, the great saint, erect and pale, with
sacred drops of blood on his five wounds, and an awfiil

silence round him, waits, rapt in some heavenly meditation,

for the moment when he, like his Lord, shall rise again. Of
relics of the Saint there are not many. The convent at
Castro-vecchio pretends to possess a bottle of blood drawn
from the wound in the side of S. Francis, which effervesces
annually on his festival. More blood, and some skin, at
Assisi ; blood, and a bit of skin, at Monte Alvemo, carried
about in procession annually, on the Feast of the Stigmata.
The linen shirt and shoes of the Saint receive religious vene-

ration at Assisi, as does also the napkin which was laid on

his dead face, and the bath in which his corpse was washed.
Florence boasts of possessing his habit.
He is represented in art in the habit of his Order, bearded,
with the stigmata, or receiving them from a flying six-winged
crucified cherub.

J<-
 Q.J ^.]
kS. Charitina. 117

October 5.

S. Thraseas, B.M. at Sinynia ; circ. a.d. 171.

SS. Palmatius and Others, MM. at Treves; a.d. 302.
S. Peregrin.\, V.M. at Rome ; circ. a.d. 303.'
S. Charitina, V.M. in Pantus; circ a.d. 304.
S. Marcellinl'S, B. of Ravenna; a.t>. 346.
S. Apollin.^ris, B. of Valetice in Dauphine ; a.d. 520.
SS. PL.A.CIDUS, EUTYCHIIS, Fl.WIA, Do.S'ATUS, AND OTHERS, M^T,
at Messina, in Sicily ; a.d. 541.
S- Galla, ly. at Rome ; circ. A.D. 546.
S. Ektmia, V. Atss. at Mende : jthcent.
S. RIkinulf, Arciuicacon at Bodichcn, in Westphalia; circ. A.D. 857.
S. MuKDACH, H . in Argyllshire.
S. Froilan, B. of Leon in Spain ; a.d. 1006.
S. Attilan, B. of Zainora in Spain; a.d. 1009.
S. Simon, Count of Crepy-en-Valois, Mk. at Bcauvais ; a.d. 1082.
B. Peter of Imola, Kyit. of S. John of Jerusalem, at Florence;
A.D. 1320.

S. CHARITINA, V.M.
(about a.d. 304.)

[Greek Menologie.s and Modern Roman Martyrology. Another

Charitina, or perhaps another commemoration of the same by the
Greeks on Jan. 15, and Sept. 4. Authority Mention in the Menolo- : —
gies, and the Acts by Metaphrastes. ]

igp^fH CHARITINA was the servant of a certain Clau-

dius, living in Pontus, perhaps at Amisus. The
procurator, Domitius, having heard that she Avas
a Christian, sent orders to Claudius for her to be
handed over to the officers for trial. Claudius was deeply
grieved ; he covered himself with sackcloth, and bewailed
her approaching fate. But Charitina bade him be of good
cheer; though as yet unbaptized, she was a Christian at
heart, and would suffer for Christ, and beseech Him to

' Relics at Laibach in Carinthia.

*-
 8 —

*-

1 1 Lives of the Saints. ^q^ ^

accept her sufferings, and for their sake shed graces and
pardon on the head of her master and his household. This
is not the only instance which the Acts of the Martyrs reveals
to us, of the tenderest love existing between the masters and
mistresses and their slaves in the old Roman world.
Claudius, when he gave up the girl to the soldiers, said to
her :
" Remember me before the Heavenly King."
She was brought before the magistrate, her hair cut off,
and burning coals poured over her head she was then flung ;

into the water, but clambered out. " This," said she, " is

my baptism." The governor then had her teeth knocked

out, and her hands and feet cut off.

S. APOLLINARIS, B. OF VALENCE.
(A.D. 520.)

and Roman Maityrologies, Ado, Usuardus, Hrabanus,

[Gallican
&c. confound him with S. ApoUinaris of Ravenna. Authorities :

Mention in the Chronicle of Ado of Vienne, and Agobard of Lyons in

his book, " De Judaicis Superstitionibus." Also a life of the saint by a
deacon of S. ApoUinaris, who died not many years later. His name was
probably Eladius.]

Apollinaris, Bishop of Valence, in Gaul, was born of

noble parents at Vienne, His brother was the more famous
S. Avitus. Archbishop of Vienne after the death of S. Isichius,
his father, who occupied the see till a,d. 494. The mother of
S. Avitus and S, Apollinaris, and wife of S, Isichius, was
named Audentia. A sister named Fuscina is praised for her
virtuesby S. Avitus, in one of his poems. The family was
noble and splendid, and was apparently that of Avitus the
emperor, and S. Sidonius Apollinaris.' Apollinaris was con-

* See August, p. 244, vol. viiL

*-
* ^
Oct. 5.]
'5'. Apollinaris of Valence. 119

secrated Bishop of Valence in 499 by his brother Avitus,

the Metropohtan.
The two brothers had hard work in their Burgundian dio-
ceses to contend against and root out the popular Arianism.
Sigismund, king of Burgundy, had renounced this heresy,
but it prevailed amidst his subjects.
In 517 assembled the Council of Epaon,' convened by
Sigismund to ameliorate the morals of the clergy in his realm,
and to put in force the ancient disciplinary canons. In this

council, which was attended by S. Avitus and S. Apollinaris,

Stephen, fiscal prefect of Burgundy, was excommunicated
for having married Palladia, his sister-in-law, on his wife's
death. This so exasperated Sigismund that he banished
the bishops from his realm. Eleven of the exiled bishops
thereupon assembled again in synod at Lyons, under the
presidency of Virentiolus the archbishop, and renewed their
sentence of excommunication. Apollinaris spent a year in
exile, in the neighbourhood of Lyons, and was then recalled
by the Burgundian king, who having been attacked by fever,

thought it was sent him in punishment for his treatment of

the bishops.
Not long after his return to Valence, S. Apollinaris started
on a journey to Aries and Marseilles, to visit some of his

relations. After his return to his see, he sickened and died.

The relics of S. ApoUinaris were thrown into the Rhone by
the Huguenots, in the i6th century.

'
The position ol Epaon is not known for certain, any more than our English

Cloveshoe ; but Epaon is thought to be represented by the modern Yenne, at the

mouth of the Flon.

* »i,
*-

I20 Lives of tJie Saints. vocx-.^.

SS. PLACIDUS, EUTYCHIUS, AND OTHERS, MM.

(A.D. 541.)

[Roman Martyrology, Ado, Usuardus, Hrabanus, &c. Often con-

founded by martyrologists with S. Placidus, the disciple of S. Benedict.
Authority : —
The Acts, a forgery of the 12th cent.]

Many ancient martyrologies commemorate on this day

the martyrdoms of SS. Placidus, Eutychius, and others, in
Sicily.^ No early martyxologist, however, speaks of these
saints as having been Benedictine monks, nor states the date
of their martyrdoms. Ado, Usuardus, Notker, &c. mention
them as Sicilian martyrs, but say nothing more about
them.
In 1 1 15, when Peter the Deacon was Abbot of Monte
Cassino, there appeared in Italy a certain Greek priest from
Constantinople, named Simeon. He had visited Sicily, and
from thence he made his way to Salerno. He produced a

parchment written and martyrdom

in Greek, containing a life
of S. Placidus, purporting to have been written by one
Gordian, monk of Monte Cassino, and companion of S. Pla-
cidus. Simeon pretended that after the martyrdom of Placidus,
Gordian took refuge at Constantinople Avith the ancestors of
Simeon ; and that Justinian, the emperor, hearing of his ad-
ventures, bade him write a record of the passion of the Bene-
dictine martyrs in Sicily. This Gordian did, and he gave
his original manuscript to his hosts, and it became a family
heirloom, which descended to Simeon, and Simeon showed
it to the Benedictines of Salerno. The monks, eager as they

'
The Epternacht Mart,
of the 8th cent. :
" In and
Sicily the nativity of Eutychius
of other eight." A
Lucca Mart.: "In Sicily, Placitus, Euticius, and other thirty."
Some copies of the Mart, of Jerome "In Sicily, Euticius and other eight, and else-
:

where Placitus and Baricius." " In Sicily, Placentius and Placitus, Euticius and
other thirty." Morbach Mart, of gth cent. " Placitus, at Valcntia Apollinarls, Euti-
:

cius, Victorinus."

*-
 '

naturally were to hear glorious news of the heroism of some

of the founders of their Order, admitted that there were no
traditions in their society confirming this wonderful narrative,
and they refused to give credence to it. Then the wily old
Greek, laying his hand on a crucifix, swore most solemnly
by that sacred form that the manuscript was genuine, and
really written by Gordian, and contained a true narrative.
Some monks yielded credence to the
of the story ; but, as
Peter, Abbot of Monte Cassino, informs us in his account of
the affair, John, Provost of S. Lorenzo, never trusted the old
rascal, but called him a Greek impostor.
There was present at Salerno, at the same time, a monk
named John of Capua, who also regarded Simeon as a rogue,
and the manuscript as a forgery ; but after a time he consented
to translate it into Latin, whether because he abandoned
his suspicions, or because the Abbot of Monte Cassino
wanted a translation, does not transpire. When the Acts, in
Greek and Latin, reached the headquarters of the Order,
they were generally regarded as apocryphal, and Peter Dia-
conus, as he tells us, at first treated them as a forgery. How-
ever, after a time perhaps he changed his mind, for in his
twenty-third year he re-translated, or rather re-wrote, the life

and martyrdom of S. Placidus and his companions. But he

returned to his former disbelief in the genuineness of the
document, for he composed, later in life, a book on the
worthies of Monte Cassino, and he was careful not to say a
word in that of the marvellous story of Gordian.
However, that story seems to have found favour with
others, and Stephen Aniciensis wrote the life.^ But his life

' " Dicens, ilium delusoiem Constantinopolitanum esse." The letter of Peter of
Monte Cassino, containing the account of Simeon, is to be found in Oct. Cajetan, De
Sanctis Siculis, t. i. p. 183.
^ TheBollandists say of him, " Stephanas quidam Aniciensis, auctor caetera igno-
tus." There was Stephen, B. of Le Pay (Anicium) in 1220, but it is hardly Hkely that
he can have been the author.

-*
 —
iii-

12 2 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. s.

is identical with that of Peter Diaconus, and it is thought

that the abbot, not liking to stand godfather to the story of
Gordian, republished it under an assumed name.
In after times, when the fabulous story became accepted,
various letters were forged to substantiate it ; these — letters
from Tertullus, the father of S. Placidus, from the Sicilians
after his martyrdom, and of Justinian and Pope Vigilius
were published along with the Chronicon Casinense, in 1603.'
Unfortunately the fraud was used to support the claims
of the Benedictine monastery to certain lands, which they
held by virtue of forged bequests by Tertullus to S. Benedict.
In the year 1266, two monks at Messina, Raymund and
Florellus, saw in vision S. Placidus, in Benedictine habit,
who ordered them to revive the festival in his honour, ob-
served anciently on October 5th, but which had fallen into
neglect. According to their story, they had demurred to
announcing to the people the celebration of the memorial of
a man of whom nobody had Thereupon heard anything.
the vision extended to them a book, containing an account
of his life and martyrdom. The book was that of Gor-
dian.''^ From this time, veneration for S. Placidus and
his companions, monks and martyrs, became popular in
Messina, and gradually infiltrated the whole Benedictine
Order.
In 1588, Raynaldde Nare, knight of S. John of Jerusalem,
began the rebuilding of the church of S. John at Messina.
On digging the foundations, it was found that the old foun-
dations of the church had been laid in the midst of a number
of skeletons, cutting across ancient walls which had formerly
enclosed them. Twenty-eight skeletons were discovered,
together with urns containing ashes, lacrymatories, and

'
These letters bristle with anachronisms. That they are forgeries does not admit
of the smallest doubt.
2 Cajetan, who relates this, says he heard it from Florellus himself, his kinsman.

*-
 —

-^
Oct. 5.] 6'6'. Placidus, Eutychius, and Others. 123

other objects usually accompanying ancient interments. Of

these bodies four were enclosed in one cist —three with their
feet to the north, one with feet to the south. Of the other
skeletons, one lay with its feet to the west, four with feet to
the east, seventeen mth feet to the north, and two with feet

to the south.
There had originally been a quadrangular wall enclosing
the cist above mentioned, and nine of the other bodies, and
probably more ; but the apse of the old church had been
built over the spot, irrespective of the sepulchre, and had
broken through the surrounding wall, leaving it intact only
on the south and west ; the cist touched the foundations of
the apse at its north-east angle. It was at once most rashly
concluded that these bodies belonged to the martyred
monks, and those in the cist were supposed to be S.
Placidus, his two brothers, and sister.

The discovery of these skeletons created a sensation in

Messina ; visions and miracles convinced the sceptical, and
the Archbishop of Messina having appealed to Pope Sixtus
v., the Pope gave judgment that the relics found at Messina
were to receive sacred honours as those of martyrs, and that
their invention should be celebrated on August 3. Pope
Sixtus V. elevated the festival of SS. Placidus and his com-
panions, monks and martyrs, on October 5, into a double,
with lessons taken from the Life by Gordian, and the festi-

val was, by his order, inserted in the Roman Martyrology

and Kalendar.*
In 1608, when excavations were made outside the apse,
more skeletons were discovered, as indeed might have been
predicted by anyone who had examined the place of the
former discoveries. An account was at once sent to Pope
'
The Jesuit fathers say: " Haec quidem Sixtus V. ad promovendum S. Placldi et
Sociorum iufidelibus cultum verum satisne prudenter segessit in hoc negotio Sixtus?
:

Dailletus enim in Vitis Sanctorum Pontificem ilium, velut hac in re minus caute
. . .

versatum, sugillare non veritus est." Acta SS., Oct. iii. p. io8.

-*
 —

124 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.s.

Paul v., and he granted sacred honours to the newly un-

earthed relics.

The story of S. Placidus is as follows :

Placidus was born in 515, and at the age of seven was

given by his father TertuUus to S. Benedict. This is

related by S. Gregory the Great in his Dialogues. One day

the little Placidus went to the water-side with a crock to
fetch water, but letting go the pitcher, it slipped in, and
Placidus, in attempting to recover it, fell in also. S. Bene-
dict at that moment was in his cell. He suddenly called to
him his disciple Maurus, and said to him :
" Brother Maurus,

run, boy who has gone to fetch water has fallen

for that
into the pond." Maurus asked a blessing and departed,
and reaching the water-side he ran out upon the surface and
caught the hair of the drowning child, and drew him safe to
land ; and then only did he perceive that he had walked on
the face of the lake to reach him. This incident is related
also by S. Gregory, and this is all that is really known of

Placidus, whose name does not again occui in any authentic

document.
The forged Acts by the pseudo-Gordian, however, make
him depart for Sicily, where he is martyred by the Saracens
along with his brothers Eutychius and Victorinus, and his
sister Flavia. and thirty companions, because they would not

worship Moloch and Remphan, the gods of the Saracen

king, Abdallah. It is needless to point out that the Saracen
invasion of Sicily did not occur till a.d. 832, when they were
Mahomedans.
If the bodies found at Messina had been those of martyrs
who had would not have
suffered in a Saracen invasion, they
had urns and lacrymatories at their sides.
The pseudo-Gordian makes the Saracen invaders come
from Spain, then, he says, in the hands of these pagans but ;

the Moorish occupation of Spain took place in 71 1-7 13, and

-^
Abdallah, whom he makes their king in Spain, was either
Abdallah of Toledo, a.d. 870, or the seventh Caliph, a.d.
880-905, or the eighth Caliph, a.d. 907-912, none of whom
sent expeditions to Sicily. But the story does not deserve
controverting, it carries its falsehood in its face. It is quite

unnecessary to enter into the particulars of the invention of

the crafty Greek Simeon. That there were martyrs in Sicily
of the names of Placidus and Eutychius, Simeon had learned
when at Messina, from the Martyrologies. That he had read
S. Gregory's Dialogues is also evident, for he incorporated
the narrative of the rescue of Placidus from drowning and
the name of his father, in his forged Acts. But all the rest is

pure invention, and he was without the smallest justification

for identifying the Placidus of Messina with the Placidus of
Subiaco.
The Roman Martyrology needs revision in this matter,
for it says on this day :
" At Messina, in Sicily, the nativity
of S. monk, disciple of S. Benedict, Abbot, and of
Placidus,
SS. Eutychius and Victorinus, his brothers, of S. Flavia,
virgin, their sister, and of SS. Donatus, Firmatus, Deacon,

Faustus, and thirty other monks, all martyrs, who were

massacred for Christ by the pirate Massucha, a.d. 541."

S. GALLA, W.
(about a.d. 546.)

[Roman Martyiolog}'. Authority : — Mention by S. Gregory the Great

in his Dialogues, iv. 13 ; and tlie letters of S. Fulgentius to her.]

At when the Goths were masters of Italy, there

the time
lived in Rome
a young lady of high birth, daughter of the
consul and patrician Symmachus. She was married when
very young, and after a year was left a widow. On the

*
»J< ,J,

126 Lives of the Saints, [Oct.s.

death of her husband she renounced every prospect of

re-marriage by shutting herself up in a monastery near the
basilica of S. Peter. After some years she was afflicted with
cancer in her breast, and suffered those agonies which none
know but such as have felt them.
Galla was unable to bear being left in the dark in her cell,

and two candles were kept burning beside her bed all night.
Her sleep was broken by her anguish, and when in the night
she woke, her mind was discomposed by want of sufficient
sleep and gnawing pain that never ceased. One night
when she opened her eyes she thought she saw S. Peter
standing between the two tapers. She stretched out her
hands to him and asked " My Lord are my sins forgiven
: !

me?" " My daughter, be of good cheer, they are," was his

answer. Now there was in the monastery a sister whom
Galla loved dearly, and she pleaded :
" I pray thee, suffer
sister Benedicta to come with me." " She shall follow thee
within thirty days," said the Apostle.
Then he vanished, and Galla called the mother and sisters
to her and told them her vision. Three days after she died,
and -within thirty days Benedicta followed her.
Q. Aurelius Symmachus, the father of Galla, was a noted
man. Priscian dedicated to him his book on weights and
measures. His other daughter, Rusticiana, was married to
the great Boethius. Boethius thus describes her :
" My wife
lives modest in mind, remarkable for her purity, and, that I

may sum up in one all her good qualities, in every way like
her father." Procopius also speaks in high terms of the
virtue and charity of Rusticiana. Another daughter, Proba,
is mentioned in a letter written to Galla by S. Fulgentius,
Bishop of Ruspe, on the death of her husband. Pioba was
then a handmaid of Christ.
An image of 8. Mary, "in Porticu," it is pretended ap
pearcd in dazzling light to S. Galla in her own house when she
^. ^
 ;

was giving alms to the poor. On the strength of certain

MSS., which Benedict XIV. thought were coeval with the
Saint, and which narrated this incident, he confirmed the
veneration Sfiven to this ima2:e.

MEINULF, ARCHDEA.
(about a.d. 857.)

[Lubek and Cologne Martyiology of 1490, Florarius, Greven, Mola-

nus, and the Bollandists. Authority : —
A life by Sigeward, probably the
Bishop of Minden in 1 122, from an earlier life, which he merely re- wrote
he dedicated his book to his friend Albin, apparently the contemporaiy
B. of Merseburg. There is a second life in Latin by Gobelinns Persona
(15th cent.), and a German translation of it of tliis same date (Kathol.
Zeitschrift, viii. 1851), but this is a recension of the work- of Sigeward.]

Meinulf was the son of noble Saxon parents, in the time

of Charlemagne. He lost his father when quite a child, and
his mother, Wigtrude, pursued by the offensive attentions of
her brother-in-law, took refuge with Charlemagne. The
emperor stood godfather to Meinulf, who was baptized at his
court. The noble family of Buren claim, with what right it
is not for us to decide, that S. Meinulf belonged to it. Popular
tradition has added some circumstances to the narrative.
Meinulf was not born when his mother resolved on flight to
escape the persecution of her brother-in-law. She heard that
Charlemagne was at Stadberg, and she was making her way
to him from her castle of Fiirstenberg, when she was seized
with the pains of labour, and Meinulf was born beneath a
lime-tree near Alt-Bodeken, which is still shown and called
" S. Meinulf's linden."
Charles the Great took charge of the child, and had him
brought up in one of the schools he had founded, under
Badurad, Bishop of Paderborn. One day the bishop was

'^
qi-

128 Lives of the Sai7tts. \oc\.s-

explaining to the scholars the text, " Foxes have holes,

and the birds of the air have Son of Man hath
nests, but the
not where to lay his head." " The Son of Man," said
Badurad, " goes over the world seeking gentle hearts which
will open to Him, and in which He may rest. He stands
without and knocks and seeks admittance, but the foxes of
cunning have made their lair within, or volatile thoughts
have nested there, and He turns away and goes further,
seeking an empty heart in which He may lay his head." The
words touched young Meinulf. He thought the Saviour
stood at his heart and knocked with His pierced hands.
And he bade Him enter and take up His abode within. So
full was he of this idea, that he resolved to embrace the
and devote all his
ecclesiastical estate, thoughts to the Lord
who and reigned within, and banish the foxes and the
rested
birds which sought an entrance. He was ordained deacon
and given a canonry in the Cathedral of Paderborn, and
was afterwards advanced to the archdeaconiy.
He was wealthy. Large estates in Westphalia belonged
to him, but he was noted for his humility, gentleness, and
abhorrence of display. One day he was talking with his
cowherd, when the man told him that there was a spot in the
forest of Bodeken, which belonged to him, where, from
under an ancient oak, bubbled up a limpid spring, and
"there," said the cowherd, "I have seen of a night a
number of deer congregate."
Meinulf had long meditated the building of a monastery.
What if this spot where the gentle, timid wild fawns gathered
were the most suitable one for a convent of holy women,
flying the world, to gather about the water-brooks of salvation ?
He resolved to spend a night on the spot. And when all

was hushed, and darkness fell on the forest, over the glade
fell a thin white mist, which lay along on the grass beside

the fountain like snow, and above in the dark sky wheeled

*-
S. MEINDLF. After Cahier. Oct. 5.
 oct.s.] '^' Meinulf, 129

the Churl's wain. From under the black arches of the forest
trees came fawns and and drank at the fountain. And
deer,
presently the moon rose full and shone down on the open
space, and all was as clear as day. Around, the forest was
black, in the glade all was brightness.
Meinulf resolved to plant on that spot a monastery for
women. He made a solemn vow to do so, and he after-
wards fulfilled it. If we may trust the story, once more he
sought the glade before the foundations were laid, and then
he disturbed a magnificent stag which, starting up, stood
and looked at him, and then bounded out of sight. And
Meinulf thought he saw a cross of light rising between the
horns of the stag. Much the same story is told of S.

Eustachius and of S. Hubert.

When the monastery was built, he richly endowed it, and
placed in it canonesses of Aix-la-Chapelle.
One anecdote only is told of his relations with these ladies.
On a cold winter's day, a young canoness, feeling thoroughly
chilled, went into an adjoining cottage to warm herself at the
fire ; she took the opportunity of removing her veil to comb
out her hair. As she crouched over the flames the veil
caught fire, blazed up, and nothing was left of it but the
fringe. The poor girl was in dismay and began to cry. At
that moment the cottage door opened and came S. in
Meinulf She covered her face with her hands and bowed
it in her lap. Meinulf mthout much difficulty obtained the
facts of the case. Then, so runs the he collected the
tale,

ashes of the veil, breathed on them, and it was restored

whole as before.
He died at Bodeken in had erected,
the monastery he
nursed through his by the loving hands of the
last sickness

sisters whom he had congregated there, and given a refuge

around the fountain of life.
The Paderborn Annals give a curious story, not told by
VOL. XI. 9
,5, ^
^ _ ^
130 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 5.

Siward. As
body was being carried on the bier to be
his
opened his eyes, and said, " Go to
buried, suddenly he sat up,
the Bishop of Paderborn and bid him in no way hamper the
free election of a new Superior." Then he closed his eyes,

lay down again on his bier, and was rigid and cold.
Some miracles convinced all around of his sanctity. After
his burial, a pall was thrown over the sepulchral stone, and
candles were lighted round it, and night and day the sisters
watched and prayed. One night the canoness deputed to keep
vigil fell asleep, and when she woke, found that a candle had

fallen on the pall without setting fire to it. As the pall was
of linen, this was accounted miraculous. In or about 887,
Bison, Bishop of Paderborn, was saying mass in the chapel
of Bodeken, when a loud report was heard issuing from the
stone that covered the tomb, and before mass was concluded
it had cracked into numerous pieces.
Bishop Bison thought the tombstone had split with the
frost, or from a settlement, and ordered that another should

be put in its place, but the saint appeared to a priest, named

Mainard, and bade him rebuke the bishop for having at-

tributed the marvel to a natural cause; and as the second

tombstone also cracked, and, according to the testimony of
the sisters, a not unfragrant odour issued from the chinks,
the body was taken up and solemnly enshrined as that of a
saint.

S. MURDACH, H.

(date uncertain.)

[Dempster ; Scottish Menology. Authority :— Dempster.]

Dempstersays that on this day is commemorated S.

Murdach, a hermit, " who had a poor habitation near a lake
in Argyleshire, which is called Kilmurdach."

^ _ ^
*- '^

Oct. s]
S. Murdach. 131

A life of him, in nine lections, is preserved, and the events

of it are painted on the walls of He was the last of
his cell.
the bards,and was said to be very devout to the Virgin, who
distinguished him by many favours."^
In his Scottish Menology, he tells an odd story of this
Saint. " Murdach, the Culdee, surnamed the Bard, so fer-

vently worshipped the Blessed Mother of God, that her

image, which was decently dressed, according to custom
and popular devotion, kicked off one of her shoes to Mur-
dach as a token to him of her benevolence. He was there-
upon charged with theft and sacrilege, when, as all the
people were looking on, and he was praying, he merited to
have the image kick off the other shoe to him. And this,

though it occurred some thousand years ago, survives freshly

in the memory of the people."
We are reminded of the image of S. Wilgefortis and the
minstrel, who sang the praises of the Saint so sweetly that
the image kicked off to him her silver shoe. The story in
both cases traces back to heathen mythology, and images of
Perchta, or Bertha, a Teutonic goddess, rejDresented with
one foot shod, the other bare.
' Dempster, Hist. Eccl. P. ii. p. 474.

-•i<
^ — ^
132 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 6,

October 6.

S. Sagarius, B.M. at Laodicea; circ. a.d. 175.

SS. Faith, V.M. and Comp. MM. at Agen in Aquitaine ; circ.
A.D. 287.
S. Prudentius, M. at Fontaine de Beze, near Langres,
S. Renatus, B. at Sorrento; tniddle 0/ $th cetii.
S. CuMiNE, Ab. of lona ; a.d. 66g.
S. Failbhe, Ab. in Scotland.
S. Ywi, Deac. at Wilton, near Salisbury ; end 0/ jtk cent.
S. Nicetas, C. in Greece ; circ. A. n. 838.
S. Magnus, B. ofOderzo; circ. a.d. 960.
S. Macc.\llin, Ab. of IVaulsor on tlie Meitse ; a.d. 978.
S. Adalbero, B. of Wiirzbttrg ; a.d. 1090.
S. Bruno, C. Founder of the Carthttsian Order, in Calabria ;

a.d. iioi.
S. Malchus, B. of Lismore ; a.d. 1125.

S. FAITH, V.M.
(about a.d. 287.)

[Roman Martyrology. Sarum, York, Hereford, and Anglican Re-

formed Kalendars ; some copies of the Martyrology of Jerome, Usuar
du.s, Wandelbert, Notker, Ado, &c. Authority —The Acts, not trust-
:

worthy. The Acts of SS. Caprais and Faith vary in several particulars
from those of S. Faith alone. All versions of the Acts are too late to be
relied upon.]

ACIANUS, governor of Spain under Diocletian

and Maximian, was at one time at Agen, in
Aquitania, and hearing that a certain noble dam-
sel, named Faith, living in x'Vgen, was a Christian,

he summoned her before his tribunal and ordered her to

renounce the faith of the Crucified. " From a child," an-
swered the maiden, " I have served the Lord Jesus Christ
with all my heart, and have confessed his name."
Dacian produced the ordinary arguments, tried persuasion

and threats in vain, and then sentenced her to be stretched

^. >j<
.J,.
— >^

Oct. 6.]
^^- Ctimine. 133

over a on a brazen grate with her hands and feet tied to

fire

four posts. She endured the agony with great fortitude.

The executioners raked up the coals under her and poured
on fat, and the blaze rushing up enveloped her. According
to one version of the Acts, a heavy fall of snow veiled her
body as it lay on the burning bed, and the shower only
ceased when she was dead. Many other Christians, moved
by her heroism, surrendered themselves and were executed
with the sword.
The arm of S. Faith was anciently shown at Glastonbury.

The crypt of S. Paul's Cathedral, London, is dedicated to

S, Faith, and was at one time enriched with some of hei"

relics. Her head is shown at Agen.

In art S. Faith is represented as a maiden with a palm-
branch and a grate.

S. CUMINE, AB.
(a.d. 669.)

[Scottish Kalendar of David Cameiaiius, by Dempster on Oct. i6.

Ferrarius in his General Catalogue of the Saints. Fitz-Simon in his
Catalogue of Irish Saints, on this day. Irish Kalendars on Feb. 24.]

CuMiNE, surnamed Fionn or the White, son of Ernan, son

of Fiachna, was therefore a descendant of Fergus, the
grandfather of S. Columba. He went to Hy, or lona, and
on the death of Suibne, the Abbot, in 657, he was elected in
his room. He wrote a life of S. Columba in 134 chapters,
and died, after having administered the Abbey for twelve
years, on February 24, a.d. 669.
He is not to be confounded with Cummian, the author of
the Paschal Epistle, as is commonly done. The latter
Cummian was surnamed Fada or the Long; he died in a.d.
662, and is commemorated on November 12.
 134 Lives of the Saints. [Oct e.

S. FAILBHE, AB.
(date uncertain.)

[Dempster in his Scottish Menology. Ferrarius.]

There are five saints of this name.

1. Failbhe, son of Pipan, son of Amalgad, of the noble
race of Conall Gulban
in Tyrconnel. Finan, Abbot of Rath,
was and lona was recruited from this stock,
his brother,
almost all the early abbots being related by blood. To that
abbey Failbhe betook himself on the death of S. Cumine
the White, in 669, and became abbot. He is quoted by
his immediate successor, S. Adamnan. He seems twice to
have revisited Ireland, probably in connection with the Pas-
chal controversy. This Failbhe is generally commemorated
on March 22.
2. Failbhe the Little was born in 668, and succeeded S.
Killen as Abbot of lona in 748. Of him nothing is known,
save that he died in the eighty-seventh year of his age on
March 10, a.d. 755, and that he was succeeded by Sleben,
son of Congal, of the race of Conall Gulban.
3. Another Failbhe the Little was abbot of Clon-Macnois,
and died in 711.
4. Failbhe, son of Guari, was the successor of S. Maelrubh^
of Apurcrossan, (d. 722), he perished by shipwreck with
twenty-two companions in 732.
5. Failbhe, Abbot of Erdairs, died in 766.
It is uncertain whether Dempster meant to commemorate
the ist, 2nd, 4th, or 5th. He says, "Abbot in Scotland,"
all four fall under this designation.

'
See Aug. 27, p. 346.

^ ^
 Oct. 6.:
6'. Yivi — ^. Nicetas. '
135

S. YWI, DEAC.
(END OF 7TH CENT.)
[Wilson's Anglican Martyrology of 1608, Castellanus, Saussaye,
Ferrarius, Biicelinus, Menardus, and Mayhew. In Northumberland on
Oct. 23. Authority :
— The Acts in Capgravc]
S. Ywi was the son of a British chief named Bran, and an
English mother named Egitha. He was brought up in the
neighbourhood of Lindisfarne, and his father in vain en-
deavoured to persuade him to embrace the career of arms.
Ywi sought a better warfare, and enrolled himself in the army
of the Lord. He was ordained by S. Cuthbert, and became

his devoted disciple.

One day when S. Cuthbert was at the altar saying mass,
and Ywi was acting as his deacon, Ywi noticed a poor man
struck with ague who could scarcely support himself on
his staff. Ywi stepped down to him, caught him by the
hand, and drew him to S. Cuthbert at the altar, and the man
was instantly made whole. He went aboard ship to visit the
monasteries of the saints in Brittany, and was nearly
wrecked. The boat was more than a week at sea, and when

Ywi reached land he was so ill that he died. His body was
carried back toEngland and buried at Wilton near Salis-
bury. The date of his death cannot be fixed with certainty.

S. NICETAS, C.

(about a.d. 838.)

[Greek Mena-a and Menology. Authority :— The perfectly trustworthy

account in the Menxa.]

S. Nicetas was born of parents in an elevated rank of hfe,

in Paphlagonia, which boasted of imperial connexions.

^ -^
ij,
— >!««

136 Lives of the Satnts. toct.6.

Nicetas is called "patrician" in all the menaeas, and he

seems to have been about the court of the Empress Irene
while quite a young man. The menology of Basil affirms
that he was sent by Irene as her representative to the second
council of Nica^a, but his name does not occur in the acts of the
council as having held there any position of importance. He
was at that time only twenty-four years old, and at that age
is not likely to have been trusted with an office requir-

ing matured discretion. He probably occupied some inferior

position. Later he was nominated prefect of Sicily, and
assisted, as we learn from the Acts of S. Euphemia, at the
translation of her relics.
In 802, the power of the Empress Irene was broken by
the revolt of Nicephorus, the grand treasurer, who had been
raised, enriched, and entrusted with the first dignity of the
empire by her. Irene was ill in bed when suddenly the
streets rang with the shout, " Nicephorus is Emperor !" and
her room was invaded by the conspirators.
Nicephorus falsely assured the sick empress that he had
only assumed the purple because he had been forced to it.

Irene indignantly rose " I have not forgotten my former

:

fortune," she said, with dignity. " An orphan in my youth,

God me in His arms and placed me on the throne
took
which was unworthy to fill. I know that my fall is due to
I
my own sins. The name of the Lord be praised To His !

miglity hand I bow He has taken the crown from me which

;

He set upon my head, and " — she turned towards Nice-

phorus, Nicetas, and the other conspirators—" you know how
often 1 have been warned against the treachery you meditated
against me whilst I heaped benefits upon you. The event
has proved that these warnings were not as false as I thought
them. Had I hstened to them and believed you could have
been traitors, your ruin would have been speedy. I trusted

rour oaths, I hoped and believed that you were blameless,

^ *
 ^

^ ^

Oct. 6] '^- Nicetas. 137

to avoid the bitter necessity of chastising you. I have given

myse'f over to the arms of the King of kings and He has
protected the empire. Now He will decide what is to be-
come of my life. If that be spared me, then I ask but one
favour, permission to live in my private palace at Eleutheris,
which I have built, in undisturbed possession of my goods,
and to spend the rest of my days in penitence and tears."
Nicephorus swore solemnly to grant her what she desired,
and to honour her ever as Augusta. But the fallen princess
found that this oath was as httle regarded as the former
oaths taken by the rebel. She was banished to the island of
Lesbos, where she was forced to work with her hands to earn
a poor livelihood, and after a few months of destitution she
died at the age of eighty, from want and grief.

Nicetas has been thought to have joined in the con-

spiracy, and indeed is charged with it by Baronius. But the
words of Theophanes, on which he relied, do not necessarily
implicate S. Nicetas in such an odious crime. He says, that
among the conspirators were " Nicetas, the patrician and
domestic of the schools, and Sisinius, the patrician and his

and perjured family of the Triphylhi."

brother, of the crafty
Nicetas TriphylUos was killed next year, a.d. 803, in battle
against the Bulgarians. The passage is capable of two
meanings —the conspirators were Nicetas, the patrician, and
Sisinius and his brother Nicetas, these two latter being of the
family of the Triphyllii, or the conspirators were Nicetas, the
patrician, and Sisinius, also patrician, and brother of this

Nicetas, both being of the family of the Triphyllii. We will

give S. Nicetas the benefit of the doubt.

Many tyrants have reigned undoubtedly more criminal
than Nicephorus, but none perhaps have more deeply in-

curred the universal abhorrence of their people. His cha-

 *

i^ lj(

1 38 Lives of the Saints. foct. e.

racterwas stained with the three odious vices of hypocrisy,

and avarice.
ingratitude, Unskilful and unfortunate in war,
Nicephorus was vanquished by the Saracens, and slain by
the Bulgarians in 811 ; and the advantage of his death over-
balanced, in the public estimation, the destruction of n

Roman army. On Michael Rhangabe assuming the purple,

Nicetas, sick at heart at the miserable condition of the
empire, its obvious decline, and threatening ruin, left the
world and assumed the monastic habit.
He had asked permission to do so of Nicephorus and his son
Stauracius, but had been refused, and the Emperor Michael,
when he accorded him permission to assume the habit, bade
him enter the monastery of Chrysonike, at the Golden Gate,
and not leave the imperial city. There Nicetas remained
tillthe reign of Leo the Armenian (813-820), but when that
emperor began the destruction of the sacred images, Nicetas
retired from the city, together with several of the brethren,

had given to the monastery. The

to a country villa which he
emperor having been informed that they had carried off an
image of the Saviour from the city, and had concealed it
from desecration, sent to the place where they resided and
ordered the immediate surrender of the image. The monks
implored the soldiers not to ill-treat the sacred icon, but
they broke into the treasury of the church, seized the figure,
and flung it contemptuously across the back of a horse.
Orders were given that Nicetas should not leave the place
where he was till he knew the emperor's pleasure. He was
left unmolested till Theophilus assumed the purple in 829,
when the emperor sent to Nicetas to order him to com
municate with Antony, patriarch of Constantinople, who
abetted the emperors in their iconoclasm. "This I will not
do," answered Nicetas ; " I will not cease from reverencing
the image of Christ, do with me what you will, banish me,
kill me, if it please you."

* —
 -*

Oct. 6.] S". Maccallin. 139

He was thereupon expelled the house. He and three

brethren took refuge in a house in the suburbs of Constanti-
nople, and spent there Lent and Easter. But an edict
having been issued forbidding the harbouring of such as
revered images, Nicetas was turned out, and as none dare
give him shelter, he betook himself to a place called
Eribolon, and remained in hiding there with his companions
till driven from it by the incursions of the Saracens. Then
they sought refuge in another place called Zulpa. Their
hiding place was again discovered and they were ordered to
communicate with the iconoclasts or depart. They were,
therefore, again obliged to remove. Nicetas found refuge at
Catisia, where he bought a little farm and, as tranquillity
came at last, he built a church there to the Angels, and spent
there the rest of his days in peace.

S. MACCALLIN, AB.

(a.d. 978.)

[Colgan on Jan. 21. In a Missal of Propers for Irish and French

Patrons, pub. at Paris in 1734, by authority of Clement XII. on Oct. 6,
Authorities : —
Mention in the Life of S. Cadroe, and in the Appendix to
Frodoard.]

S. Maccallin, or Malcallin, an Irishman, visited France,

together with S. Cadroe and some others, in 945 or 946.
Cadroe was of the royal house of the Scots of North Britain.
He, and probably Malcalhn A\ith him, came to Boulogne,
and thence went to S. Fursey's monastery at Peronne, where
Cadroe prayed to God that he would, through the merits of
S. Fursey, point him out a place where he should plant his
staff and rest. On the following night the Saint appeared to
him in a vision, and told him that he must go elsewhere.
Not far from Peronne there lived a pious and wealthy lady

^ ^
^ _ ^
140 Lives of the Saints. joct.e.

named Hersendis, who was very kind to pilgrims. On hearing

that some such persons had arrived in her neighbourhood,
she sent to them, requesting that they would visit her. They
complied with her wish, and on conversing with her, said that
all they wanted was a retired spot where they might serve God
in peace and work for their bread. She then gladly offered
them a spot in the forest called " Theorascencis," near the
river Oise, in the diocese of Laon and adjoining the frontiers of
Hainault, and where there was a church under the invocation
of S. Michael. They liked the place, and Hersendis got the
church enlarged and habitations erected for their use. Among
these pilgrims, who in all were thirteen, was Maccallin, whose
name now occurs for the first time. Where he met with Cadroe
we are not informed, nor whether he had travelled with him all
the way from Scotland, but it is not improbable that he had.
Wheresoever it was that these holy men first met, they and
their companions having settled at S. Michael's, proceeded
to elect a superior, and S. Cadroe was fixed upon for the pur-
pose. But as he could not be persuaded to accept the office,
Maccallin was compelled to be their abbot. After a while,
the abbot and Cadroe resolved to join the Order of S. Bene-
dict ; and to attain their purpose, Maccallin went to Gorz,
a monastery in the diocese of Metz, and Cadroe to Fleury,
on the Loire. When Maccallin had received the monastic
habit, Hersendis sent to the Abbot Agenald, of Gorz, re-
questing him to suffer Maccallin to proceed to a place she
had destined as the seat of a new monastery. This was Waul-
sort, on the Meuse, between Dinant and Givet, a spot of en-

chanting beauty, shut in by limestone crags and rich forests.

Maccalhn accordingly became Abbot of Waulsort, without
surrendering his direction of S. Michael's. Cadroe became
his prior. But after some time, Maccallin, finding the direc-
tion of two establishments more than he could manage,
begged S. Cadroe to become Abbot of Waulsort. To this

^ — »j,
Oct. 6.]
S.Bruno. 141

3. Cadroe consented \vith difficulty, a.d. 950. Cadroe was

afterwards Abbot of S. Clement's, at Metz, and died in a.d.

975, at the age of seventy. His commemoration is on the

6th of March. S. Maccallin, having returned to S. Michael's,

spent there the remainder of his days, and died on Jan. 21st,
A.D. 978.
Another MaccaUin, or Macallan, bishop and confessor, is
honoured in Scotland on September 6, and is mentioned on
that day by the Martyrology of Donegal. He was bishop at
Lusk ; his Acts are preserved in MS. in Trinity College, Dub-
lin. He died about a.d. 497. He is said in them " to have

twice visited Scotland, and to be in repute there."

S. BRUNO, C.

(a.d. iioi.)

[His office permitted in the Carthusian Order by Leo X. in 1514.

Canonized by Gregory XV. in 1623. Roman and Carthusian Marty r-
ologies. Authorities : —A Life by the chronologer of the five first priors
of the Order, written about 1260. The which the
encyclical letter in
death of S. Bruno was announced to his disciples. Mention by Guibert
of Nogent (d. 1124). There are other, later, lives of less value one by :

Francis a Puteo, in 1515, another in hexameters byZacharia Benedetto,

A.D. 1508, &c.]

S. Bruno was a native of Cologne, born of noble parents.

From childhood he is said to have exhibited extraordinary
gravity and He studied grammar at
religious earnestness.
Laon and was aftenvards sent to Paris to finish his
or Bee,
education in that renowned university. He rose to distinc-
tion, taught philosophy, and applied himself to theology.

On his return to Cologne, Anno, the archbishop, gave him

a canonry in the church of S. Cunibert, and he received
minor orders from his hands. At the death of Anno he was

-*
 142 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. e.

made canon of Rheims, without apparently surrendering

his canonry at Cologne. At Rheims he taught philosophy,
and was advanced to be chancellor of the archdiocese. On
the death of Gervaise, Archbishop of Rheims, in 1069,
Manasses de Gournai obtained the see, as it was afterwards
by simoniacal means. However that may have been,
alleged,
Bruno remained on good terms with him, and accepted many
benefices at his hands ; but the archbishop had no taste for
His birth
ecclesiastical studies, or love of religious duties.
was noble, he had been brought up among knights, and he
preferred association with them to the tamer, if more profit-

able, society of his clergy. He affected a splendid retinue,

rode about accompanied by armed men, and to keep up this
state laid taxes on his clergy, and kept back the revenues of
monasteries. ''
A capital benefice this of Rheims," said he,
" were it not for the masses that have to be sung." ^

Bruno, perhaps unable to endure the conduct of his bishop,

in 1076 left Rheims, and probably went to Paris,- where he

was hospitably received, together with some other Rheimois,

by one Adam. One day, whilst there, he was walking in the
garden with Ralph le Vert and Fulques the One-eyed, and
they talked together of the uncertainty of human prosperity
and the joyc of the religious life. The three friends agreed
together to forsake the world, but not before they had tried
to chastise the archbishop for his misdeeds, and especially
for his treatment of themselves. Fulques was sent to Rome
to complain of Manasses, and Bruno took refuge with the
Count of Roucy, who had also causes of complaint against
the archbishop. who had been
In 1076, the appeals of those
excommunicated by Manasses having become numerous, the
Pope gave commission to the Bishop of Paris to examine
their cases on the spot, and if he found that they had been

* Guibcrt of Nogent.
* Probably this is not, however, certain.
; Adam was canon of Paris.

1^ -^
 Oct. 6.
S. BRUNO. After Cahier.
 -*

Oct. 6.]
5'. Bruno. 143

unjustly treated, to absolve them by the authority of the

Holy See. In execution of these orders, Hugh of Die, papal
legate, summoned a council to assemble at Autun, in 1077.
At that council Bruno and another Manasses, Provost of
Rheims, lodged tlieir complaints against the archbishop, and
he was suspended from his functions. Manasses, in revenge,

broke into the houses of his accusers, pillaged them, confis-

cated their benefices, and gave or sold them to others. But,
having received peremptory orders from the Pope, he was
forced to go to Rome and clear himself of the charges made
against him as best he was able.
A very striking incident in the life of S. Bruno, and which,
according to Carthusian tradition, led to his conversion, took
place, if there be any truth in it, whilst he was at Paris with
Adam. There was a certain canon of the cathedral of Paris,
a doctor and lecturer in the university of great renown for his
learning, and generally regarded as a man of blameless life.
He died, and all the members of the university attended his
funeral. Whilst the body lay on the bier, between flaming
unbleached tapers, the clergy chanted around it, and the
officiating priest recited the proper lesson from Job :
" Hear

diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.

Behold now, I have ordered my cause I know that I

; shall

be justified. Who is he that will plead with me? for now,

if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost. Only do not
two things unto me : then will I not hide myself from Thee.
Withdraw Thine hand me and let not Thy dread
far from :

make me afraid. Then

Thou, and I will answer or let
call :

me speak, and answer Thou me." At that moment the

corpse opened its eyes, rose slowly on the bier, and said in a
low voice, " I am accused at the just judgment-seat of God."
A horror fell upon all present; they fled from the church,*

'
According to one version the scene was in the house, according to another in the
church.

-*
 144 Lives of the Saints, [Octe.

and the corpse, which had sunk back on the bier, was left

alone.
Next day again the funeral ceremony was recommenced.
With trembhng voice the priest began the lesson, " Hear
diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.
.... Then call Thou, and I Avill answer." He paused his ;

nervous fingers could hardly hold the book. With an effort

he proceeded, " Let me speak, and answer thou me."
Again the corpse rose, opened its dead blank eyes, no
colour shot into the sallow cheeks, the livid lips opened, and
the words issued, " I am judged at the just tribunal of God."
And again it fell back motionless as before.
The same panic fell on priest and assistants. The service
was not concluded that day.
On the third day a crowd of wondering people attended
with faces blank with alarm. Amidst the funeral trappings
of black and silver, the yellow unbleached tapers seemed to
burn faintly. A silence most profound fell on all as the
choir began to intone the mournful psalms for the dead.

And then the lesson from Job was sung. " Your remem-
brances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let

come on me what will. . . . Hear diligently my speech, and

my declaration with your ears. . . . Who is he that will

plead with me ? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up

the ghost. .Then call thou, and I will answer, or let me
. .

speak, and answer thou me." Instantly the corpse sat up,
a look of horror came into the dead eyes, and a shriek, " I
am condemned by the just judgment of God," rang through
the church. Then the bishop said " He whom God has :

condemned, let him not be laid in holy ground, but be cast

forth and buried in a dung-heap."
Bruno, so runs the tale, was present during those awful
scenes. The shock, the horror, overcame him, and he

*
 -*

Oct. 6.]
-^^ Bruno. 145

resolved for ever to quit the world, its pomps and vanities,
and live with the just judgment of God ever before his
eyes.
Cssarius of Heisterbach, who flourished in 1180, relates
the stor}'^, but without mentioning its effect on S. Bruno. It

is told in the earliest life of S. Bruno, written about 1260, by

a Carthusian. It was inserted in the Roman Breviary in
one of the lessons for the festival of S. Bruno, by order ot
Pope Gregory XVI., but Pope Urban VIII. had it expunged
as supported on insufficient evidence.
In the meantime Manasses had succeeded in persuading
Pope Gregory VII. that the charges raised against him had
been exaggerated or untrue. The pope listened patiently to
the accusations made against the archbishop by some of the
canons of Rheims and the Count of Roucy, and then restored
him to the full exercise of his rights, from which the papal
legate, Hugh of Die, and the council of Autun had deprived
him. Manasses returned with a papal brief to the legate,
bidding him reinstate him in his archbishopric and in no
way molest him. All the malcontents now reconciled them-
selves to the archbishop, except Bruno and one named
Pontius. Bruno betook himself to Cologne ; the archbishop
either refused or delayed to restore to Bruno the benefices
of which he had despoiled him, and it was not till the
expulsion of Manasses, in 1080, that he was able to return
to Rheims. Elinand of Laon at once obtained the see from
King Henry, and held it for two years, till deprived by
Gregory VII. Bruno, sickened with the miserable contests
which desolated Europe, the utterly irreligious character of

several of the prelates, the coldness which had invaded the

Church, resolved to quit the world without more ado. He
resigned his benefices, and in company with six friends,
Lantwin, Stephen du Bourg, Stephen de S. Die, an aged
priest, Hugh the Chaplain, and two laymen, Andrew and
VOL. XI. 10
^ »J»
 __
»J< ^

146 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. &

Guerin, went forth in search of a place where they might be

farfrom the strife of the world, and might live in peace to
God.
On midsummer day, 1086, Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble,
saw seven men cast themselves at his feet, imploring him
to guide them to a place where they might spend the rest of
their lives in solitude. There was a wild spot in his diocese,
shut in by snowy mountains, approachable only by a
narrow road on the edge of the ravine. He had visited this
spot, the resort of the peasants with their cattle in the
summer, on one of his peregrinations of his diocese. It

had struck his fancy, and he had dreamt of it, that he saw a
convent rise from its grassy sward, sprinkled with gentian
and yellow anemone, and that seven stars had wheeled
above, illumining it with a sui)ernatural glory. When
Uruno and his companions asked his direction, his thoughts
rushed at once to this al])ine solitude and his dream con
cerning it.

He them that he knew a suitable valley, and invited

told
them to stay with him for a few days till he had obtained
for them a concession of the mountain wilderness with its

forests and meadows from Segwin, Abbot of Chaise-Dieu.

Then he conducted the seven postulants up the rocky
path to the valley of Chartreuse, which was thenceforth to
give its name to one of the most famous Orders of the
Church.
"Never, perhaps, was chosen a more glorious shrine ot

Nature's making wherein to found a retreat for the practice

of the ascetic type of Christian perfection, and which in the
result proved the cradle of the great Carthusian Order.
The nine houses of this austere Order that were suppressed
in England, traced their origin, directly or indirectly, as well
as their popular name of Charterhouse, to the Chartreuse of
Dauphiny. Of these nine sister priories, built of solid

»J<- >i<
* >f,

Oct, 6.]
S.Bruno. 147

masonry, scarce a vestige remains to tell the story of its

former splendour ;^and the very sites of most of them have

sunk into oblivion. Yet the great Chartreuse, though
anterior in date to the oldest of Charterhouses, subsists to
this day, a lasting monument to the character and genius of
its founder, S. Bruno.
" The lovely valley that lends to the Chartreuse such
extrinsic charms, and which, in its turn, has been elevated
out of obscurity by tlie moral attractions of the cloister,

will bear comparison with the choicest bits of Swiss

scenery. The vale of Chamouni, the rugged pass of the
Via Mala on the heights of the Spliigen, or the group of
valleys from whose lap the Jungfrau raises aloft her snowy
head, witli a gi-ace befitting her graceful name, are hardly
more beautiful than the Desert, as it is called, of the Char-
treuse. This desert, or wilderness, 'we approached from
S. Laurent du Pont, through a precipitous ^vinding defile, the
narrow road being hewn out of the rock, with stupendous
crags towering over head, and a gaping chasm below, from
the shingly bed of which ascends the mufl:led roar of an
alpine torrent ; the grandeur of the whole scene enhanced
by perpendicular pine forests clothing the steep banks
of rock that hem in this mountain pass. As you ascend
the steep corniche roadway, which is carried from time to
time over the torrent by a stone bridge, delightful glimpses
break upon the view at each successive turn — glimpses of
distant peaks or vast banks of sombre firs, or patches of
blue sky peeping out betwixt overhanging cliffs.
" Gradually the nan-ow gorge, darkened even at noonday
by the lofty fir-bound rocks that almost meet on either side,
opens out into a valley less confined, indeed, but equally
beautiful. The whitened summit of the Grand Som— the
'
Mount Grace Priory, in Yorkshire, near Northallerton, is in a singularly perfect
state of preservation.

* ^
^ ^

148 Lives of the Saints. toct.6.

Mont Blanc of the Daupliiny Alps —now becomes more

easily discernible ; the rocks frown down upon you more
grandly than ever, and the masses of tall pines are no less
dense. In this wild spot stands the world-famed Chartreuse.
" Close behind the monastery rises the Grand Som itself,

a mountain of rock whose icy needle-points either lose

themselves in clouds, or according to the season, seem, spire-
like, to penetrate the sky. It is as if a gigantic wall had
been expressly shaped by Nature's own hand to serve for a

majestic background to the convent. The priory occupies

the valley between the Grand Som, on one side, and a huge
bank of firs on the other a fine contrast being presented by
;

the bare, bleached crags and sharp peaks of the mountains at

the back of the monastery, in juxtaposition with the dark
tints of the gigantic fir-bank facing it.

" Among the many convents I have visited at different

times and places, none is comparable, in point of situation,

with the Great Chartreuse. It reaUzes, if any material thing
can realize, the idea of the subHme. Endless varieties of the
grandest mountain forms and cloud-enveloped peaks;
fantastic outlines of rugged rocks ; impenetrable woods made
up of dusky pines, beeches, planes, and other forest trees,
throwing a rich garb of verdure over yawning precipices ;

with the comparatively smiling vale lying quietly ensconced

in the midst of the whole — constitute a picture seldom
equalled, and more rarely surpassed."^
Such was the place where Bruno laid the foundation oi
his Order. He immediately set to work to build an oratory
and small cells at a distance from one another, like the
ancient Lauras of Palestine, in which the members of his
community might live. For his society was to be one
distinctively of hermits, of solitaries, but of solitaries united
under a common mle and protected by their bond from

' Algernon Taylor, " Scenes in French Monasteries," p. 216, seq.

^-
 ;

^ ^
Oct. 6.]
"S". Bruno. 149

some of the disadvantages under which hermits laboured,

and the dangers to which they were exposed.
The life of these anchorites was singularly austere. Each
in hisown cell was obliged to work at some handicraft.
They had no refectory, but ate in solitude what was passed
to them through a wicket in their doors.
Peter the Abbot of Cluni fifty years after
Venerable,
S. Bruno, writes of them :
" Their dress
is meaner and poorer

than that of other monks so short and scanty, and so

;

rough, that the very sight affrights one. They wear coarse
hair shirts next their skin, fast almost perpetually ; eat only
bran-bread ; never touch flesh, even when ill ; never buy
fish,but eat it if given them as an alms eat eggs and cheese ;

on Sundays and Thursdays on Tuesdays and Saturdays

;

their fare is pulse or herbs boiled on Mondays, Wednes-

;

days, and Fridays they take nothing but bread and water
and they have only one meal a day, except within the octaves
of Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, Epiphany, and some other
festivals. Their constant occupation is praying, reading,
and manual labour, which consists chiefly in transcribing
books. They say the lesser hours of the divine oftice in
their cells at the times when the bell rings ; but meet
together at vespers and matins with wonderful recollection.
They say mass only on Sundays and festivals."

One custom is peculiar to the Order. Once a week the

convent gates are opened, and all tlie solitaries go forth in

twos for a walk among the mountains, through the forests,

or over the flowery meadows.
S. Bruno, who had inspired his companions with the
desire of flying the world, was regarded by them as their
Superior, and S. Hugh of Grenoble, who had guided them to
this retreat, chose Bruno as his spiritual adviser. Whilst
Bruno was enjoying the peace of this beautiful solitude, in

the hopes of ending his days there, Urban II. sent him

*
 —

—
^- _ — 1f

150 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.e.

orders to come to Rome. Urban had been his pupil, and

he was resolved to confer on his former master some marks
of distinction. Bruno was therefore called away from his
beloved retreat after having tasted its delights for only six
years. His grief at leaving, the sorrow of his companions at

the propect of losing him, forbid description. The six

friends consulted together and resolved unanimously not to

be separated from their guide. If he must go, they would

accompany him. They declared their purpose to S. Bruno.

He could not refuse his consent. They received the bene-
diction of S.Hugh of Grenoble and departed for Rome.
Bruno was received by the Pope with every mark of
S.

esteem and affection. He was retained about his person,

and admitted into the ecclesiastical council, that he might
be consulted on matters of religion. His companions were
given a lodging in the city, where they endeavoured to main-
tain their rule of life observed in the Alpine desert. But the
noise and distraction of a great town troubled them: they
grew sad, their prayers seemed listless, their meditations

pointless ; they pined for the cool, clear atmosphere of the

mountains, where, in hush and isolation, they could pray and
muse on God without disturbance. They could endure it no
longer, and, headed by I^antwin, they entreated permission
to be restored to the beloved valley of the Chartreuse. Bruno
obtained permission for them to depart he named Lantwin ;

their prior, and the little swarm winged its way, light of heart,
to the thyme-scented banks of the stream that flowed through
the Chartreuse.
Bruno, though deprived of his friends, maintained a con-
stant correspondence with them. He was himself weary of
life in Rome, and pining for solitude. In vain did he im-
plore the pope to permit his departure ; his presence was
too valuable for Urban to grant his request. In 1090 the
archbishopric of Reggio fell vacant, and was offered to

^ _ H^
1^ _ ^
Oct. 6.] S.Bruno. 151

Bruno. But he refused it, though taken into Calabria with

the hopes of persuading him to accept it. When there, he
escaped Avith some of his companions to the soUtude of Torre,
in the diocese of Squillace, whilst Pope Urban was in France,
and having obtained a grant of the land from Roger, Count
of Sicily and Calabria, formed there a new settlement. There
he was allowed to remain in tranquillity till his death, which
took place in iioi. Feeling his end approach, he called
together his religious, and made a general confession in their
presence ; then protested his faith in all the verities of the
Catholic creed, especially in Real Presence,
that of the
which Berengarius had then begun to dispute, and so sur-
rendered his soul to God before he had reached his fiftieth

year.
His body is in the church of S. Stephen, at Torre, but
portions of his bones have been distributed among different
churches of the Order.
In art S. Bruno is represented contemplating the Crucifix,
with the words on a scroll issuing from his mouth, "O
bonitas J" or, " Ecce elongavi fugiens, et mansi in solitudine"
(Ps. liv. 8). Sometimes bearing an olive-branch, or a cruci-
fix the ends of which are foliated with olive leaves, on account
of an antiphon in the Carthusian Breviary, which likens him
to the olive taking root and bearing fruit in the most barren
soil.

The subject of the conversion of S. Bruno is a favourite

one with painters.

^ >j,
*- -*

1 52 Lives of the Saiitts. [Oct. ^.

October 7.

S. JuSTlNA, V.M. at Padua.

SS. Marcei.lus and Apuleius, MM. at Rome; isi cent.
S. EuMENius, B.C. at Alexandria, a.d. 143.
SS. Sergius and Bacchus, 3'TM. in Syria ; cent.yd
S.Julia, V.M. in Syria; \th cent.
S. Mark, Pope of Rome, a.d. 336.
S. Leopardin, Mk. M. at A nbigny in France ; 6t/i or -jth cent,
S. Augustus, P. Ab. at Bourges; 6th cent.
S. DuBTACH, Ab/>. 0/ Aitnagh, a.d. 513.
S. Palladius, B. at Saintes in France, circ. a.d. 600.
S. OsYTH, V.M. at Chick in Essex ; endo/yth cent.

S. JUSTINA, V.M.
(date uncertain.)

[Roman Martyrology. Not found in any ancient Martyrology. The

Acts are a late mediaeval forgery also the forged Acts of S. Prosdochi-
;

mus, both compositions of the 12th cent.]

HE only ancient writer who mentions S. Justina

of Padua is Venantius Fortunatus, an Italian by

birth, but Bishop of Poictiers, in the sixth century.
Twice does he mention the name in connection

with Padua, but gives no particulars concerning her. Two

sermons on S. Justina are attributed to S. Maximus, but they
are generally admitted to be much later, the composition of a
monk. The Acts of S. Justina are one of those audacious for-
geries, more common in the East than in the West, pretending

to have been written by an eye-witness of what he describes.

The writer of the Acts of S. Justina would have himself re-
garded as Prosdochimus, disciple of S. Peter, and first bishop
of Padua. Some time in the Middle Ages Padua was am-
bitious to know something about her early bishops and
martyrs, and a writer, more zealous than honest, composed

^ _ >J<
 !

-•J"

Oct. 7.]
S. Justina. 153

a set of Acts to supply the deficiency. First he wrote the

Acts of S. Prosdochimus, as if by S. Maximus, his successor

in the see, and inserted therein the words, " This same man,
S. Prosdochimus, wrote the passion of Justina, and com-
mitted it to us {i.e. Maximus), to be retained in our memory."

The Acts conclude :

" After his death, I, Maximus, his suc-
cessor, being chosen by all the clergy and people, and con-
secrated by the Roman bishop, wrote down all that I saw
and that I heard of him." The same hand wrote next the
Acts of S. Justina, introducing them with this audacious
falsehood " I beg of you, whosoever shall piously and re-
:

ligiously hear or read this, to remember in your prayers me,

a sinner, who was present, in the Lord's name, at this mar-

tyrdom." These forgeries are as clumsy as they are wicked.
The wTiter was profoundly ignorant of history. He made
Nero succeed Maximian. For Justina is martyred by Max-
imian (a.d. 286-305), and Prosdochimus, who writes her
passion, is a mart}^ under Nero (a.d. 54-68), and disciple of
S. Peter. Vitalianus, father of Justina, is, moreover, king
of Padua
After having stated this, it would seem useless to narrate
the incidents of the passion of S. Justina ; but inasnmch as
it is possible that the pseudo- Prosdochimus may have Avorked
ancient material into his otherwise valueless composition, the
account of her martyrdom shall be briefly summarized.
Justina, daughter of Vitalianus and Prsepedigna, noble
parents at Padua, believing in Christ, was left an orphan at
the age of sixteen. As she was returning from her villa in
the country to Padua one day, she was stopped by the
soldiers ofMaximian on the bridge over the Po, and obliged
to descend from her chariot and follow them to the court of

justice. She knelt on the stones, and prayed God to pre-

serve her innocence, though in the hands of brutal soldiers.
The impression of her knees on the stones is shown at this

-^
^___ v^

154 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 7.

day on the bridge.When brought before Maximian, she

showed the utmost courage, and he ordered her to be
stabbed to the heart with a sword. In 1 177, Gerard, Bishop
of Padua, determined to find the body of S. Justina, and
having found a skeleton under the altar in the church of her
dedication, placed it in a shrine, and exhibited it to the vene-
ration of the people. This is probably the date of the com-
position of the Acts.
S. Justina is represented with a palm-branch, and her side
transfixed by a sword.

SS. MARCELLUS AND APULEIUS, MM.

(iST CENTURY.)

[Roman Martyrology. Many copies of the Mart, of Jerome, Ado,

Usuardus, Notker, &c. Sarum, York, Hereford, and Durham Kalendars.
The Sacramentary of Gelasius. Authority :
— The Apocryphal Acts of
SS. Nereus and Achilles.]

Marcellus and Apuleius seem to be the same as Nicetas

and Aquila, mentioned in the Clementines as disciples of
Simon Magus; the Martyrologies speak of them as follow-
ing Simon till converted by S. Peter. On reference to the
Clementine Recognitions, that most extraordinary philo-
sophical religious romance of the 2nd century, we find that
their names Greek were Nicetas and Aquila. The in-
in
ventor of the Acts of SS. Nereus and Achilles adopted their
story into his composition, and crowned them with martyr-
dom. They are purely apocryphal personages.

^-
 —
•^

Oct. 7.]
SS. Sergius and Bacchus. 155

SS. SERGIUS AND BACCHUS, MM.

(about a.d. 301.)

[Martyrology of Jerome. Roman and most Latin Martyrologies.

Hereford Kalendar. By the Greeks, and Russians, and Copts on the
same day. The Syriac Chiu-ch on Dec. 9 and Aug. 21. Authorities :

The Acts in Greek and Latin, not contemporary, and not wholly trust-
worthy. ]

In 431, the church built over these martyrs' bodies at Ra-

saphe, in Syria, was falling with age, and it was restored by
Alexander, the bishop. Evagrius describes the tomb in the
church as plated with silver, in the middle of the 6th century.
The Emperor and the Empress Theodora gave a
Justinian
gold cross to the church in honour of the martyrs.
Sergius and Bacchus were two officers in the household of
the Emperor Maximian. One day, when the Emperor went
into the temple of Jupiter to offer sacrifice, he noticed that
his two had remained outside.
officers Suspecting the
reason, he sent for them and ordered them to unite with him
in adoring the great god Jupiter. They refused, and Max-
imian ordered them to have their military insignia plucked
off, and that they should be dressed in women's clothes,

and so conducted through the streets of the city. They

bore this indignity with great firmness. Then Maximian
sent them to Antiochus, governor of the province of Augusta
Euphratorum, to Rasaphe, and there Bacchus was scourged
till he died ; and Sergius, after having been made to walk in

boots with nails in the soles so as to tear his feet, was exe-
cuted by the sword. There is a church at Rome dedicated
to these saints.

-^
*-

156 Lives of the Saints, [Oct.7.

S. PALLADIUS, B. OF SAINTES.
(about a.d. 600.)

[Gallican Martyrologies. Veneration for this saint dates from the loth
cent. Authority :
— Gregory of Tours. ]
S. Palladius, called S. Pallais in French, was of noble
birth. When he was consecrated Bishop of Saintes is not
known, but he was present in the synod of Paris held in
573, as his signature is found attached to its decrees. A
synod was held in 579 at Saintes, at which he also probably
assisted, but its canons have not been preserved.
In 584 a youth named Gundobald, brought up with long
flowing hair, after the manner of the Frank princes, was
presented by his mother to Childebert I. as the natural son
of his brother Clothair I. "Behold," said she, •''thy nephew.
I present him to thee, because he is abhorred of his father,
Clothair. He is thy flesh, therefore receive him." Childe-
bert, who was sonless, accepted the charge, and Gundobald
remained with him. But when news of this reached Clothair,
he sent messengers to his brothei-'s court demanding the
youth, and when Gundobald was brought to him he repudiated
him as his son, and ordered his long locks to be shorn off.

But after the death Gundobald was again

of Clothair,
received by Childebert. But he was captured by Sigebert of
Austrasia, and his hair again cut short. He was sent to
Cologne, but having escaped, he made his way to Narses,
who was then in Italy, and there he married and had a
family. From Italy he went to Constantinople, and after
some delay in the capital of the East, he returned to Gaul,
and was well received by Theodore, Bishop of Marseilles,
and accepted as king by Mummolus the patrician, and
Desiderius, Duke of Provence. Thence he went to Limoges
 —

-*

Oct. 7.] -S". Palladius. 157

and was proclaimed king at Brive-la-Gaillarde. He received

the allegiance of the nobles and citizens at Angouleme,
I'oulouse, and Bordeaux. The Bishop of Bordeaux was
Bertram, related to Guntrani/ King of Orleans, on his
mother's side.
Whilst Gundobald was at Bordeaux, the Bishop of Dax
on the Adour died. Thereupon the pretender nominated
Faustian, priest of Dax, to the vacant bishopric, Nizier,

Count of Dax, complained to Chilperic, King of Soissons,

as the bishopric had been promised to him. But Gundobald
ordered the consecration of Faustian by the Bishop of

Bordeaux, assisted by Palladius of Saintes, and Orestes of

Bazas. Dax was under the metropolitan throne of Eause
and not of Bordeaux, so that the three bishops had trans-
gressed canonical order by the consecration of Faustian.
Saintes was in the metropolitan diocese of Bordeaux, and
therefore S. Palladius may have thought himself bound to
obey his archbishop. But the act involved him in trouble.

In the same year, 585, Guntram of Orleans sent an arm)^

against Gundobald. A battle was fought at Cominges,
which ended in the total rout and slaughter of the troops of

the pretender, and the death of Gundobald himself. The

bishops who had sided with him, and had consecrated
Faustian, were brought to Orleans, where Guntram was, to
answer for their conduct.

Palladius perhaps told the truth. " Bertram, the metro

politan, was afflicted with sore eyes and could not well read.

'
To facilitate understanding a perplexing period of history, the following table will
prove of advantage :

Clovis

Theodobert, Chlodomir, Childebert, Clothair I. =^S. Radegund

d. 552. d. 534. d. 55S. d. 561. I

Claribert, Guntram, Chilperic, Sigebert,

K. of Paris, K. of Orleans, K. of Soissons, K. of Aiistrasia,
d. 572. .
593. d. 584. d. 575.

•J.
 158 Lives of the Saints. \(^zx..^.

I had been brought, against my desire, to Dax, as a

captive. I could not do otherwise than obey him whom

apparently the majority of the Gallic nobles acknowledged

as king." Orestes shuffled and denied his participation in
the ceremony. The king was highly incensed at the
answer of Palladius, and could hardly be persuaded to allow
Bertram and Palladius to sup with him. When the two
bishops entered tlie banqueting hall, the king turned to
Bertram and said with a sneer, " We thank you for having
kept faith with us. Beloved father, it befits you to know
that you are our kinsman on our mother's side, and therefore
you were the last person who should have introduced that
foreign pest Gundobald into our kingdom." Then looking
at Palladius he roared forth :
" And to you, Bishop Palladius,
we owe great thanks. Shame on you ! This is the third
time that you have forsworn yourself to me, and you a bishop !

And you excuse yourself and my kinsman by letters to me

whilst inciting others against me. God judge between us !

I have ever sought to protect you bishops, and you have

ever wrought subtly against me." Then turning to Nicasius of
Angouleme and Antidius of Agen, he said " Let me know :

what good you have done to your country, or to my crown,

by your intrigues, most holy fathers." Then he washed his
hands and sat down to table, grace having been said, and
the clouds passed from his brow.
During the supper, the king's son Childebert was intro
duced, and Guntram besought the bishops to pray for his
prosperity. Palladius seized the opportunity. He rose
from his seat and poured forth an eloquent prayer over the
child's head, invoking for him a long life, the rout of his
enemies, and extension of the boundaries of his kingdom.
Guntram was delighted, and Palladius and his metropolitan
ivere temporarily restored to his favour.

The matter of Faustian could not, however, be disposed

>J< ____^
 -^

Oct. 7.]
kS. Palladius. 159

of without a council. There was another trouble exercising

men's minds at the time. A Gallican bishop had dared to as-
sert that a woman had not a legitimate claim to be called homo.
A council or synod assembled at Macon in 585, and
Bertram, Palladius, and Orestes were condemned to pay
annually a hundred pieces of gold for the maintenance of
their bishop Faustian in episcopal splendour, but he was
not suftered to fill the see, which was given, as had been
promised, to Nizier, Count of Dax. The bishop who had
disputed the humanity of woman was denounced.
But though Palladius had for a time regained the king's
favour, Guntram soon returned to his former mistrust of
him and vexation at his conduct. One Sunday, not long
after the feast at which the Bishop of Saintes had i^rayed for

his son, the king entered the cathedral, when finding that
Palladius was at the altar, he exclaimed, angrily, " What !

this perfidious and unfaithful fellow trusted to utter holy

words, and minister in holy things ? I will leave the church
at once." And he turned to depart. There was a com-
motion. Some of the clergy interfered :
" Sire ! j^ou suffered

him to give a blessing at the banquet, permit him now to

continue the service, as he has already begun it ;and should
he hereafter oftend, let him be dealt with according to the
sacred canons."' Then Gimtram consented to remain, but
reluctantly, and with a sullen countenance.
Palladius was again, however, invited along with the Bishop
of Bordeaux, his metropolitan, to the king's table, when a most
unseemly quarrel broke out between the Bishop of Saintes
and his metropolitan over their cups. Each accused the
other of adultery, fornication, and perjury, amidst the
laughter of many of those present, but the lamentations of a
few.^ It is almost to be hoped that the metropolitan and

' " Cum iterate ad convivlum regis Palladius atque Bertchramnus adsciti fuissent
coramoti iuvicem multa sibi de adulteriis ae fgrnicatione exprobrarunt, nonnuUa etiam

-*
 his suffragan were drunk at the time, for if they had been
sober they would hardly have made such open charges
without some grounds.
On the return of Palladius to his diocese after the synod
of Macon, he fell upon some of his clergy who had found
fault with his proceedings, had them beaten severely, and
plundered their houses.
Not long after, Antesius, an officer of Guntram, extorted
from him a farm he had coveted, under the threat of
denouncing him to the king for having harboured mes-
sengers from Fredegund to Leovigild. The accusation
was unfounded Palladius proved
; his innocence before the
king, and recovered his farm.
S. Palladius erected a church at Saintes dedicated to S.
Martin, and enriched it with some relics of that saint. He
also translated the body of S. Eutropius, and built a church
to SS. Peter and Paul, with thirteen altars in it, also a
church and monastery to S. Vasius.

When S. Augustine was being sent to Britain on his

mission to convert the Saxons and Angles, the great S.

Gregory wrote to Palladius of Saintes, Pelagius of Tours,

and Serenius of Marseilles to commend to their hospitaHty
the band of missionaries who were on their way through
Gaul.
The date of the death of S. Palladius cannot be fixed.
It is somewhat surprising that a man of whom no good is
known, save that he built some churches, should have
received veneration as a saint. It was not for three hundred
years that the idea that he was one entered the heads of the
people of Saintes, and Baronius acted discreetly in not
inserting his name in the Roman Martyrology.

de perjuriis. Quibus de rebus multi ridebant, nonnulli vero, qui alacrioris erant
scientla;, lamentabantur, cur inter sacerdotes Domini taliter zizania diaboli pullularent."
— >?. Gregor. Turoji. Hist. Franc, lib. viii. c. 20.

^-
 S. OSYTH, V.M.
(end of 7TH CENTURY.)

[Brussels Martyrology. Greven on June 4 and Oct. 5. Lubek and

Cologne Martyrologies on Oct. 7. Wilson's and Wyon's Anglican
Martyrologies. The Monastic Martyrologies of Menai-dus, Bucelinus,
and Mayhew. Ferrarius and Castellani. Authorities A life, probably : —
by Alberic Vera, canon of S. Osyth, in the 13th cent. The life is in
Capgrave and Surius. Vere is known to have written a life of the
saint, and probably this is his composition, or a condensation of it.']

S. Osyth was the daughter of Frithewald, a Mercian

prince, who is mentioned by Florence of Worcester as assist-
ing S. Erconwald in laying the foundations of a monastery at
Chertsey in 675. The mother of S. Osyth was Wilteburga,
a daughter of Penda, King of Mercia. Her name occurs
nowhere else, and she may have been a natural child of that
famous chief. Osyth was committed to the care of S. Mod-
wenna, the Irish abbess, perhaps at Burton-on-Trent. The
life of the saint, by Alberic Vere, is unfortunately not to be
trusted as to particularsit makes S. Edith of Polesworth a
;

disciple of S.Modwenna. Alberic was misled by the life of

S. Modwenna by Concubran, and the origin of the mistake
has been pointed out elsewhere. The disciple of S. Modwenna
was not Edith, sister of Alfred the Great, but Elfleda, sister of
Alfred of Northumbria, who lived three centuries earlier
than S. Modwenna bade Elfleda in-
Edith of Polesworth.
struct the young girl in reading. One day in winter Elfleda
sent Osyth to the abbess with a book. The child had to
cross the river by a foot-bridge of wood the wind was high, ;

the bridge slippery with rain Osyth slipped, and fell with
;

the book into the water. Elfleda perhaps heard her cry,

' Except in one matter it is free from anachronisms. The only mistake is that of
taking S. Elfleda for S. Edith.
VOL. XI I I

•J< ^
 and ran down to the bank of the river. The current was
sweeping the child away, and she would have been drowned,
had not Modwenna providentially arrived at the spot at
themoment. She asked the reason of the cries of Elfleda,
and when she found that Osyth was in the water, she ran to
the edge, shrieking " Osyth, Osyth, Osyth ! for God's sake
strike out for me." The little girl called " Here I am, here
I am, mistress mine !
" And finding that she could touch
the ground, or catch a branch, she bravely struggled ashore,
without having let go her hold of the volume intrusted to her.
The place where this happened is called Menpole to this
day, says Alberic Vere.
When the education of Osyth was complete, she was re-
stored to her parents, and her hand was sought by Sigh ere.
King of the East Saxons. Osyth's heart was set on the re-
ligious life, and it grieved her sore that she must be married
to an earthly bridegroom. However, there was no help for
it. Her parents were resolute, and a sumptuous wedding-
feast was held. Now, whilst the banquet was in course,
suddenly a magnificent stag bounded past the hall windows.
Sighere was an ardent lover, but he was a more ardent
sportsman. He blew his horn, mounted his horse, and,
followed by his men, went in pursuit of the stag. Osyth
seized the opportunity, and fled the place Avith some of her
maids. When Sighere returned from hunting the stag, he
had lost his bride. Osyth escaped to Bishops Acca' and
Bedwin,^ of the East Saxons, and they gave her the veil.

Sighere,^ seeing that his young bride was bent on the re-

ligious life, gave her up lands at Chich, a spit of land at the

mouth of the Colne, and there she founded a monastery,

Acca, B. of Dunwich, 673.

'

Ccdwin, B. of Elmham, 673-679.

'
" Sighere is mentioiied
by Bede as having renounced his Christianity in time of
pestilence, a.d. 664, and restored the idol temples. This may have been one reason
wi y Osyth disliked the nwrriage.

g4 ,j,
 into which she retired. The date can be fixed with precision
as 673.
The place then called Cliich, and now S. Osyth's, was
an inviting landing-place for the Northmen. Long creeks
filled at high tide, convenient for their vessels to lie in, in-

tersect the land. A Danish pirate fleet suddenly entered

the mouth of the Colne, and running up the creek to
S. Osyth's, disgorgedmurderous crew, and the ferocious
its

Northmen burst into the monastery of nuns. The chief of

the expedition would have carried off Osyth to the shipji, but
when she resisted, he struck offShe is said to
her head.
have risen to her feet after the blow, and to have applied
her hands, steeped in blood, to the door of the church dedi-
cated to SS. Peter and Paul. According to popular legend,
her head was struck off at a spot where there was till lately

a spring called S. Osyth's Well, and she walked bearing her

head as far as the church. The well has been turfed over,
and the water carried off in pipes to supply the house which
occupies the site of the priory.

^ ^
*^ *
1
64 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. s

October 8.

S. Simeon, Propk. at yerusalem ; is/ cent.

S. Reparata, V.M. at Ccesarea in Palestine ; 2nd cent,
S. Artemon, P.m. at Laociicea; -^rdcent.
S. Demetrius, 31. at Thessalonica ; circ. a.d. 306.
S. Benedicta, V.M. at Laon in France ; circ. A.D. 306.
S. Thais, Pen. in Egypt ; ^th cent.
S. Felix, B.C. at Coiito ; end of A,th cent.
S. Pelagia, Pen. at Jerusalem; circ. a.d. 457,
S. Kevne, V. in Abergavenny ; circ. a.d. 490.
S. Triduana, V. at Restalrig i?i Lothian.
S. Gratus, B. o/Ckalons-sur-Saone ; jth cent.
SS. Valeria and Pollena, KK. at Homieconrt, near Catnbrai.
SS. EusEBiA, Abss. AND xxxi.x. NuNs, VV. MM. at Marseilles ; St/t cent.
S. Ragnfried, Abfi. at Dcnairs, near Valenciennes ; circ. A.D. 805.
S. Amor, C. at Munsterhilsen. near Maestricht ; g/A cent.
S. Hugh, Knt. C. at Genoa; a.d. 1220,
S. Briget of Siveden ; a.d. 1373.

S. SIMEON, PROPHET.
(iST CENTURY.)

[Roman Martyrology, U.suardus, Ado. But Floras, Hrabanus, Notker

on Jan. 5. By the Greeks on Feb. 3 ; same day by the Russians ; by
the Copts on Feb. 2.]

IMEON, a devout Jew, inspired by the Holy

Ghost, met the B. Virgin when she brought Our
Lord into the Temple, at her purification, and,
taking Him up in his arms, he gave thanks for

what he saw and knew of Jesus (Luke ii. 25-35). I" ^^^
apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Simeon is called a high
priest. The statement deserves no respect. He was pro-
bably the Rabban Simeon, son of Hillel, who succeeded his
father as president of the Sanhedrim, about a.d. 13, though
Bartolocci'^ doubts it. The grandmother of Rabban Simeon
' " Bibliotheca Max. Rabin," iii. 327.

*-
Oct 8.]
•^- Demetrius. 165

was of the family of David, and his son was Gamaliel the
Pharisee, at whose feet S. Paul was brought up.^
S. Adamnan, and S. Gregory of Tours, say that he was

buried on Mount Olivet. In the 6th century his relics were

translated to Constantinople, by Justin the Younger. Por-
tions were given to Charlemagne, and were by him placed at
Aix, where the arm on which the infant Saviour rested when
the " Nunc Dimittis" was first is said, is shown. Other relics
at Hartzburg, but the entire body at Zara, in Dalmatia;
and another entire body at Andechs, in Bavaria. Part of an
arm at Perigueux, another part at Palermo. The head in the
Jesuit college at Brussels. Numerous other relics, mostly of
arms, elsewhere.

S. DEMETRIUS, M.
(about a.d. 306.)

[Roman Martyrology, Hrabanus, Bede, the Mart. Parviim, and that

of S. Jerome, Ado, Notker, &c. By the Greeks, Russians, Copts,
Syrians, Ethiopians on Oct. 26. By the Greeks he is entitled one of
the " Great Martyrs." Authorities :— A Passion by a Greek anonymous
writer, translated into Latin in the 9th cent, by Anastasius Bibliotheca-
rius. was probably composed in the 6th cent. Another Greek
It
Passion exists much later, and a third by Metaphrastes also an encomium
;

by John of Thessalonica in the 7th cent. The first Passion is apparently

thoroughly trustworthy. ]

Maximianus Galerius was at Thessalonica about the

year 306, where he amused his leisure \vith gladiatorial fights

in the amphitheatre. He had a favourite gladiator, named

Lyseus, a man large of body, powerful and agile ; he had
been the death of so many men, that scarce any could be
found who would meet him in the arena. One day, Max-
' Acts xxij. 3.
1 66 Lives of the Saints, foct. a

imian went to the amphitheatre accompanied by Ly?eus,

when he was met on the road by his ofificers, conveying
Demetrius, a Christian, whom they had apprehended, to
prison. Maximian halted, and ordered him to be thrust
into a room in the pubUc baths till he returned from the
sports, when he would examine him himself. Then he strode
on and took his accustomed place in the circus. Lyseus
stood forth in the arena, and defied all men to contend with
him. No one accepted the challenge. Then Maximian
offered large rewards to the man who would fight with
Lyffius. Instantly a young man named Nestor jumped into
the middle of the lists, and offered to fight the practised

gladiator. Maximian hesitated, then called the youth up to

him and said, " Hark ye, I know that you have challenged
Lyseus because you are needy and you think, if you kill
;

him, you will gain great rewards ; and if you die well, there—
is an end to poverty and misery. But, young man, I have
pity on your youth, and I will give you a present because of
your pluck in defying this champion of mine." " Sire,"
answered Nestor, " I have not challenged him for reward,
but for the honour of fighting so redoubted a gladiator."
So they met, and Lyseus was prostrated at one blow and
killed. Maximian was angry at having lost his favourite
fighting-man. He rose from his seat, and left the amphi-
theatre without rewarding Nestor. He was in this mood,
when the officers stood before him on his way home and
asked what was to be done with Demetrius.
"Run him through with your spears," said the angry
tyrant. And Demetrius, unheard, was thus privately de-
spatched in a room of the baths. When persecution ceased,
Leontius, Christian prefect of Illyria, purged the baths, and
erected over the scene of the martyrdom and the body of the
martyr, a Christian church, which he also richly endowed,
in honour of the martyr Demetrius. The later historians of
 '

^ ^
Oct. 8.] •^. T/mzs. 167

the passion, to connect the incidents and exalt the saint,

make Nestor ask his blessing before he engages with Lyseus,
but there is no hint of this in the earliest Acts.

S. THAIS, PEN.
(4TH CENT.)

[Greek Mencea and Menologies. Of Latin Martyrologists, Mauroly-

clius, Graven, and the Bollandists. Authority :— A life originally in
Greek also a metrical life by Marbod of Rennes, d. 1123; the Greek
;

life was probably written in the 5th cent.]

There lived a beautiful, sinful woman, in Egypt, pro-

bably at Alexandria. Her splendid beauty was the cause
of many a furious contest between her rivals, and the guilt
of their blood lay at her door.
Now there lived in the wild, lone, sand-wastes a very old
hermit named Paphnutius. And it was told him how this

woman bewitched the youth with her beauty, and gave

herself up to pride of life, lust of eye, and of flesh. And
as the sun rose and set over the still desert, his mind
travelled away to the busy town and the hot, restless life

men and women lived there, and his heart filled with
inexpressible sadness at the thoughts of the woman who
was a sinner.
At length the wilderness became unendurable to him.
He must go and see her, and speak to her. So he dis-
guised himself and went to the town, and called at her
house, and asked to say a few words to her. Then he was
admitted and was shown into a magnificent apartment, and
there, lounging on a costly couch, was the beautiful courtezan.
The old hermit stood still and looked hard at her, and his
heart beat, and his eyes began to fill, and he could scarcely
utter a word.

^ _-__, ^
 1 68 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. s.

" Let all go out," said he.

" There is no one here but God," she answered.
" What you know that there is a God ? " said he, with
!

vehemence.
" Yes," she replied, " I was brought up a Christian, and
taught this truth."
" And do you know that there is a heaven for the righteous,
and a hell for the ungodly?"
**
I know it," she faltered.

Then he broke out into a long bitter cry and said " O :

God Almighty she knows Thee, and what Thou hast in

!

store for them that serve Thee, and for them that offend
Thee, and yet she has slain many poor souls which might
have seen Thee and rested in Thy glory through all eternity,

but which must now wail in endless woe."

Then Thais, for that was her name, trembled exceedingly,
and she sprang from her seat and threw herself at the feet
of the old man and held them, and said " My father, my :

father show me a way to escape

! Teach me how to !

repent."
And he said :
" I Avill. But first I must go away and
prepare a place for thee."
Then, when he was gone, Thais made a great heap in the
open street of all her dresses, and set them on fire, and went
forth, clad in poor raiment, to the place Paphnutius had
appointed her. It was a monastery of holy women. And
there he gave her a and she entered, and he sealed
little cell,

up the door with lead, and bade the sisters give her water
and dry bread through the narrow window.
Moreover, he bade her not so much as raise her hands to
heaven, nor name God with her lips, but look to the east in
prayer, and say " Thou who hast fashioned me, have mercy
:

upon me."
After three years had passed, Paphnutius was grieved for

^ ^
 —
-*

Oct. 8.]
'^- Pelagia.
S. -^ 169
'^"'^'S

Thais, and he went to the Abbot Antony and asked him

whether he thought that the severity of her penance might
be moderated, and that God had pardoned her sins.
Then Antony bade his monks fast and pray one night, and
inquire what the will of God was. Now while all were in
silent supplication, suddenly Paul, the oldest disciple of
Antony, looked up, and saw in vision a glorious place in
heaven. And he said " It is the place prepared for my
:

father Antony." Then a voice answered, " Not so, it is for

Thais, the penitent."
And when this was told, with great joy did Paphnutius
hurry to the monastery, and he broke open the door and
said to Thais " Come forth
: the Lord hath pardoned thy
!

sins."

And she said :

" Since the day that I entered, they have
weighed on me as a heavy burden ; I have felt them day and
night."
" Therefore," answered Paphnutius, " the Lord hath
pardoned thee."
And after she had come forth, Thais lived but fifteen

days, and then she emigrated to the Lord.

S. PELAGIA, PEN.

(about a.d. 457.)

[Mart, of Jerome. Ado, Usuardus, Roman Martyrology. BytheGreeks,

Russians, Syriac Kalendar, that of the Maronites, &c. Authority:
Two Greek lives, paraphrases of a more ancient Greek one, by James
the deacon of Nonnus, Bishop of Hierapolis, who converted Pelagia.]

Maximus, Bishop of Antioch, had convoked the bishops

under his metropolitan jurisdiction to assemble for a synod
in Antioch. Eight prelates attended, and amongst them

-*
^ — qi

1 70 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. %.

was Nonnus, Bishop of Edessa/ a holy man, who had been

monk in the monastery of Tabenna in Egypt, but had been
forcibly drawn from it to be ordained bishop. The synod
met m the basilica of the Martyr Julian. When the session
was not being held, some of the bishops and clergy sat at
the church door in the shade, and amongst them Nonnus.
Then certain of those present asked him to give them words
of counsel. He rose at once and spoke, and what he said
was so seasoned with salt, that none who heard him remained
unmoved.
Now whilst he was speaking, there came out of a street
upon the square into the broad sunlight, Pelagia, the chief
actress and dancer of the theatre of Antioch, riding on an
ass, adorned with jewels and in array of fine linen and silk.

Her shoes were of gilded leather, studded with pearls. On

either side was a train of boys and girls, beautifully dressed,
wearing golden torques round their necks, young actors and
actresses trained by Pelagia. She wore no veil, and her
dazzling beauty attracted the eyes of all the passers by. So
highly scented was she with musk, that the air of the street
through which she passed was made fragrant.

Now when the saw her with bare face and

bishops
shoulders, they turned their heads aside. But Nonnus,
arrested in his discourse, looked attentively at her, following
her with his eyes very earnestly till she disappeared. Then
turning to the other bishops, he asked, " Did not the sight of
"
that woman please you ?

They answered him not a word.

Then he laid his face on his knee and wept, and his book
of prayers was stained with his tears.After a while he
looked up and said again to the bishops, " Did you not
delight in her beauty?"
They remained silent as before, perplexed at his question.
' Venerated on December 2.

^ _ ^
 -(J.

Oct. 8.]
S. Pelagia. 171

But he said, " I was right well pleased to see her. For
it seems to me, that God has placed her before us to judge
our lives and bishoprics. For, see you, my dearest, how
that woman spends many hours in bathing and anointing
herself, in decking out her hair, and her arms and neck and

ankles, with rings of gold and chains of pearls, and how she
devotes long time and much eftbrt to practise her dances,
whereas we have not such zeal and diligence in our office,

or in preparing our souls for our just and holy Lord who is

of purer eyes than to behold iniquity."

So saying, he laid his hand on his deacon, James, the
writer of this most touching narrative, and bade him lead
him away to the hostel where he lodged. And when he
came there he entered into his chamber and cast himself on
the pavement and wept sore, and smote his breast and the ;

night settled down on the city and the stars shone out, and
the old man prayed on, till he fell asleep with his face in his
hands.
When morning came the old bishop called to him his
deacon, and said, " I have had a dream, and I cannot
understand it, and it has disturbed me greatly." And later

in the day he said :

" T thought I was standing at the altar,

and at the corner I filth and nearly

saw a dove, stained with
black, and it flew about me
and I could notas I said mass,
endure its foulness. But when the deacon had proclaimed
to the catechumens that they must depart, then I saw it no
more till I had completed mass, and had finished the
oblation, and had dismissed the congregation; and then, as
I went out of the porch, I saw again that dove fluttering

round me and I put forth my hands and caught it and cast

;

it into the shell that stood in the atrium of the church, and
forthwith the dove flew up white as snow, and soared, and I
stood looking, and it went higher and higher and was lost to
sight in the deep blue sky."

-*
 172 Lives of the Saints. \.oqx.%.

Then Nonnus the bishop laid his hand on his deacon's

shoulder, and bade him lead him to the church, for it was
the Lord's day. Now when Nonnus entered with the other
bishops they saluted their metropolitan, and the people
crowded in after them, and the bishopson their thrones.
sat
" Now after the canonical celebration," says the deacon

James, " or reading of the holy gospel, the same bishop of

the city held out the holy gospel to the blessed Nonnus, and
exhorted him to speak a word to the people. And he
opening his mouth spake the wisdom of God which dwelt in
him, for there was in him no studied elocution, or philoso-
phy, or anything superfluous, but filled with the Holy Ghost
he reasoned with and admonished the people, speaking
simply of the future judgment, and of the good things laid
up by God. And all the people were moved by the words
he spake through the Holy Ghost, so that their tears dropped
on the pavement of the church. And by the counsel and
mercy of God, it fell out that the woman of whom I have
told happened then to be in the church, and it was a great
wonder, for she was not a catechumen, and had never felt any
solicitude about her sins, nor had frequented churches at
any time. But now she heard and was pricked to the heart
with the fear of the Lord, whilst Nonnus spake, so that she
despaired and could not contain her tears, but sobbed out
aloud. And she said to two of her slaves, '
Tarry here, and
when the blessed Nonnus goes forth, follow him, and learn
where he dwells, and come and bring me word.'
" The slaves therefore did as their mistress had com-

manded, and, following us, they came to the basilica of the

blessed martyr Julian, where was given us a lodging or cell.
And going back, they went and told their mistress, saying,
'
They lodge in the basilica of the blessed martyr Julian.'
Then straightway she sent a diptych of tablets by the same
servants, on which she had written these words To the :
'

^. (j,
 -*

Oct. 8.]
6". Pelagia, 173

holy disciple of Christ, a sinner and disciple of the devil

sends greeting. I have heard of thy God, who bowed the
heavens, and came down on earth, not to save the just, but
sinners and that He so humbled Himself as to draw nigh
;

to publicans. He, whom cherubim dare not gaze on, conversed

with sinners. And thou, my lord, who art very holy,

although with eyes of flesh thou hast not seen that Lord
Jesus Christ who manifested Himself by the well to the
Samaritan woman, yet thou art His worshipper, as I have
heard from Christians. If, therefore, thou art a true disciple
of that Christ, reject me not, desiring to behold the Saviour
by thee, and let me be permitted to see thy holy face.'
" Then the holy Nonnus, the bishop, wrote back to her:
'
Whoever thou art, it is manifest to God, and so is the coun-
sel of thy heart. But I say unto thee. Tempt not my
humility, for I, though a servant of God, am a sinner. If

thou then truly hast a desire of divinity, of acquiring virtues

and faith, and seekest to see me, there are other bishops
with me, and thou mayest see me in their presence, but alone
thou mayest not see me.' Now when she had read this she
was filled with joy, and came swiftly to to the temple of the
blessed Julian the martyr, and announced to us her presence.
On hearing this, Nonnus the bishop called about him all the

bishops who were there, and bade her come in. And she,
entering, where the bishops were assembled, cast herself on
the pavement, and held the feet of the blessed Bishop Non-
nus, and said, '
I pray thee, my lord, imitate thy Master,

Jesus Christ, and pour out upon me thy great charity, and
make me a Christian. For I, my
am an ocean of sins, lord,

and an abyss of iniquity. I pray that I may be baptized.'

" Now, when the holy bishop Nonnus had hardly per-

suaded her to rise from his feet, he lifted her up, and said
to her, '
The ecclesiastical canons forbid to baptize a courte-
zan unless she be attended by sponsors, who may see that

-*
(5<
^
174 Lives of the Saints, [Oct. 8.

she falls not back again to her former sins.' She, hearing
this, cast on the floor, and clasped the feet of
herself again
the holy Nonnus, and washed them with her tears, and wiped
them Avith the hair of her head, saying, Thou, then, must '

answer for my soul to God. To thee will I attribute my evil

deeds, if thou deniest me the washing of baptism to cleanse

me, guilty and most foul. Thou shalt not have thy portion
among the saints, unless thou now estrangest me from my
former evil career. Thou deniest thy God, if thou refusest to
give me this day new birth as a bride of Christ, and pre-
sentest me cleansed before God.' And when they heard
this, all who were present glorified God, for the so great
desire of salvation kindled in the heart of this woman who
was a sinner.
" Forth\vith they sent me, the sinful deacon, to the bishop

of that city, that I might infonn him of all, and ask his beati-
tude to bid one of the deaconesses attend with me. And he,
hearing this, was filled with great joy, saying, '
It is well,
honourable father, these works will await thee in heaven ; I

know that thou wilt act as my mouth.' ^ And straightway

he sent with me the Lady Romana, the first deaconess. And
we coming, found the woman still at the feet of the holy
Nonnus the bishop, who could scarce persuade her to rise,
saying, '
Stand up, daughter, to be exorcised.' And he said
to her, '
Confess all thy sins.' And she answered, '
If I search
out the depth of my heart, I find in myself no good acts what-
ever. But I know my sins, which are weightier than the sand
by the sea-shore and the water is as a drop to their abun-
;

dance. But thy God, that he will remove the

I trust in
burden of my iniquities, and look in compassion upon me.'
" Then said Nonnus to her, Say, what is thy name." '

And she answered, *

My natural name is Pelagia, which
was given me by my parents ; but the citizens of Antioch
'
Jer. XV. 19
call me Margaret, on account of the pearls wherewith I have
vadorncd me, the price of my iniquities.' Again Nonnus the
bishop said to her, '
Are you properly called Pelagia?' And
she said, '
It is so, my lord.' Then the holy Nonnus exor-
cised her, and baptized her, and gave her the seal of the
Lord, and communicated her with the Body of Christ. And
her spiritual mother was the holy lady Romana, the first
deaconess, who, receiving" her, went up into the house of the
catechumens, in the which we were also lodged. Then said
the holy Nonnus, the bishop, to me, ' I say unto thee, brother
deacon, to-day we will rejoice with the angels of God, and
eat our food with oil, and drink wine with great gladness of
spirit, because of the salvation of this poor girl.'"

When the conversion of Pelagia was rumoured in Antioch,

there gathered a crowd of the dissipated men of the place,
and shouted and railed against the bishops, and cried to
Pelagia to return to the stage, and to the pomps and vanities
of life. But Nonnus said to Pelagia, " Sign thyself with the
Cross, and renounce them." And she made the holy sign,
and was unmoved by their cries.
And on the third day after her baptism she said to her
steward, " Go into my room where I keep my apparel, and
gold and silver, and and make a list of all, and bring
jewels,
it me." He and she handed over to Bishop Nonnus
did so,

all that she possessed, to be by him disposed of as he saw

fit. And he called for the treasurer of the church, and gave
it all to him, and said, " See that none of it be carried into

the church, but distribute it among the widows and orphans,

for these are the hire of sin."

And summoned her slaves, and gave them all their

Pelagia
liberty,and made them a present of the gold torques they
wore, and said, " Make haste, and escape out of the bondage
of this sinful world."
And on the eighth day, on which the baptismal white

-*
^-

iy6 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. s.

robe is laid aside, Pelagia rose in the night, took off her the
white garment of baptism, and clothed herself in the horse-
hair tunic and mantle of Nonnus, and from that day was seen
no more in Antioch.
Romana the deaconess wept bitterly, fearing that Pelagia
had returned to her evil ways but the bishop Nonnus, who
;

knew what was the purpose of Pelagia, consoled her, saying,

" Rejoice, my daughter, for Pelagia has chosen that good
part which the Lord extolled in the Gospel."
Pelagia took her course to Jerusalem, and she built herself
a little cell on the Mount of Olives, near the garden of Geth-
semane.
*'
And after three or four years, I, James the deacon, de-
signed to go to Jerusalem, to adore the resurrection of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and I asked permission of my bishop.
And wlien he consented that I should go, he said to me, *
I

bid thee, brother deacon, when thou comest to Jerusalem,

seek out a certain brother Pelagius, a beardless monk, who
has for some years dwelt shut up in a cell ; ask him how he
fares, perhaps thou mayest be able to succour him.' And I

went and adored the resurrection of our Lord

to Jerusalem,

Jesus Christ ; and next day I went in quest of the servant of

God. And I went and found him on Mount Olivet, where
the Lord prayed, in a little cell, enclosed on all sides, and
with a window in the wall.
little

" Andknocked at the window, and straightway it was

I

opened, and she knew me, but I, indeed, did not recognize
her. For how could I ? Seeing that before I had beheld
her in radiant beauty, and now I saw a pallid face, with deep
sunken eyes.
"And she said to me, 'Whence comest thou, brother?'
I answered and said, *
I am sent unto thee by Nonnus the
bishop.' And she said, '
Let him pray for me, for he is a
true saint of God.' Then she closed the window, and

^-
J, ^
Oct. 8.] S. Pelagia. 177

began to sing the Psalms of the third hour. And I prayed,

leaning against the wall of the cell, and then went away,
much gratified by this angelic vision. And I returned to
Jerusalem, and went about the monastery, and visited the
brethren. And everywhere I heard praise of the virtues of
Pelagius. Therefore I my mind to return
deliberated in
and and obtain some salutary instruc-
salute the anchorite
tion. But when I came to the cell and knocked, and called
Pelagius by name, there was no answer. So I waited the
second and the third day, persevering, and calling Pelagius
by name, but I heard no one. Therefore I said within my-
self, Either no one is within, or he who was here has left
'

the place.'
" But, by God's inspiration, another thought struck me, and
I said, ' Perhaps he may be dead.' So I pushed open the little

window, and looked in, and saw that he was dead. So then
I closed the window, and choked it up with clay, and ran to

Jerusalem and told what I had discovered, that the holy

monk Pelagius had fallen asleep. Then the holy fathers
from divers monasteries came and opened the door of the
cell, and carried out the little body, and laid it, as was

worthy, on gold and precious stones. But when they found

that she was a woman, all the people burst forth into praise,
saying, Glory be to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, who hast many
'

hidden treasures on earth, not male only, but female also.'

And when the fame spread, then came all the monasteries
of virgins from Jericho and from Jordan, with wax candles
and lamps, and hymns, and so her holy relics were laid at
rest, borne by the holy fathers."

P^.elics at Jouarre, in France.

VOL. XI. 12
 —
178 Lives of the Saints. joct. s

S. KEYNE, V.

(about a.d. 490.)

[Wilson's Anglican Martyrology of 1640. Wytford in his Anglican

Martyrology of 1526. Authority : A Legend in Capgrave.]

According to the legend in Capgrave, S. Keyne (in

Welsh, Ceneu,) was the daughter of Brychan, King of Breck-

nock. He says, Brychan was the father of twelve sons
and twelve daughters, all saints. The eldest son was S.
Cynog,' and the eldest daughter was S. Gladws.^ She was
the mother of S. Cadoc.^ The second daughter was Melari,
mother of S. David.''

is by others said to have been a daughter

Although Ceneu
of Brychan, and the number of his sons has swelled to
twenty-four, and that of his daughters to twenty-six, there
can be no question that the grandchildren of this prince
have been inserted in the list as his own children. Keyne
or Ceneu was, perhaps, a grand-daughter of Brychan, and
not a daughter ; but it is probable that three Brychans have
been fused into one.
The legend says that when the mother of Keyne was
expecting her birth, rays of light shot from her breasts, and
she dreamed that she nursed a dove in her lap. The little

Ceneu as a girl at times and at others

shone like the sun,

appeared as white as drifted snow. When she came to a

marriageable age she refused every offer for her hand, and
vowed herself to God; therefore she is called in Welsh
' According to all the Welsh lists Cynawg or Cynog was the eldest son of Brychan
by Branhadlwedd.
* Properly Gwladys, the wife of Gwynllj-w Filwr. From the dates of her husband
and children, which are easily computed, it would appear that she was a grand-
daughter, rather than a daughter, of Brychan.
•^
Cattwg, son of Gwladys and Gwynllyw Filwr.
* Eleri, married to Ceredig ab Cunedda- was the paternal grandmother of S. David

—— ^

4<
^ _ 1^

Oct. 8.]
^' Keyne. 179

Cein-wyryf, or Keyne
At length she determined
the Virgin.
to forsake her country some desert place where she
and find
might spend her time in prayer and contemplation. There-
fore, having crossed the Severn, she arrived in a woody

country, and obtained permission from the prince of that

country to settle there. But the place did so swarm with
serpents that he assured her neither man nor beast could
inhabit However, she assured him that if he would
it.

suffer her to dwell there she would rid it of the noxious

reptiles, and when she had prayed they were turned into

stone. "And to this day the stones in that region do

resemble the form of a serpent, as though sculptured by a
stone-cutter, through the fields and villages." This description
refers to the ammonites in the lias at Keynsham. Thence
she went on into Cornwall.^ After a while, S. Cadog went
in search of her, and found her on his return from a visit

to S. Michael's Mount in Cornwall. With him she returned

to her own country, and took up her abode at Llangeneu
in Abergavenny, at the foot of a mountain, and there by

a prayer she elicited a miraculous spring.^ And when the

day of her departure came, a column of fire was seen
standing over the cell, and two angels descended to
where she layon branches on the floor, and one, bowing
reverently, removed her sackcloth habit, and the other
vested her in a sheet of linen and a crimson tunic, and
cast over her a mantle embroidered with gold, and said :

"Come with us, and we will introduce you to the king-

dom of thy Father." Then she died and was buried by
S. Cadog.
A well dedicated to S. Keyne exists in the parish of

1 This not, indeed, stated in thejLife, but the fact of her well and church being
is

shown inCornwall indicate her having been there.

2 The spring is still called by her name, and the foundations of her oratory may also
be traced.

^ ^
 — " ;

^( — ^
1 80 Lives of the Saints. \oc\..%

S. Keyne in Cornwall, near Liskeard. It is covered with old

masonry, upon the top of which grow five large trees, a
Cornish elm, an oak, and three antique ash trees, on so
narrow a space, that it is difficult to imagine how the roots
can be accommodated. According to popular story, S.

Keyne presented this well to the inhabitants in return for

the church which they dedicated to her, and it has the

marvellous property, by which the husband or wife who can
first obtain a draught of water from the spring \vill acquire
the ascendency in domestic affairs. The mystical well is

the subject of a ballad, by Southey, which concludes with

the follomng lines :

" I hasten'd as soon as the wedding was o'er

And left my good wife in the porch,
But i' faith she had been wiser than I,

For she took a bottle to church !

S. TRIDUANA, V.

(date uncertain.)

[Aberdeen and Arbuthnot Kalendars. The Martyrologies of Demp-

ster and Camerarius. Authority : —
The Aberdeen Breviary.]

Before the Reformation there were several locahties in

the neighbourhood of Edinburgh which were celebrated as
places of pilgrimage. Near Musselburgh was the chapel of
Our Lady of Loretto there was also the ancient church of
;

S. Mary of Hamer —
the White Kirk of our Lady of Lothian
but the most important of all was the chapel of S. Triduana
at Bestalrig, where the bones of that saint lay.
She is called variously Treddles,Tredwall, Trallew, Trallen,

i — ^
 —

Tradlius, and in composition Tradwall. In the Ork-

neyinga Saga, a miracle is related wrought by her intercession,
and she is there called S. Trollha^na.'
Her legend in the Breviary of Aberdeen is as follows :

The glorious virgin Triduana of Colosse came with S.

Regulus, in or about a.d. 337, from Constantinople, bearing

the relics of S. Andrew to Scotland. She was accompanied
also by the virgins Crescentia, Potentia, and Emeria. Tri-
duana led an eremitical life, along with Potentia and
Emeria, at Rescoby, in Forfarshire. But the tyrant Nec-
tanevus, prince of the country, having conceived a violent
passion for her, she fled to Dunfallandy in Athol. There
his ministerscoming to her, she said, " What does so great
a prince desire of me, a poor virgin dedicated to God?"
To which they answered, " He desireth the most excellent
beauty of thine eyes, which if he obtain not he will surely

die." Then the virgin said, " What he seeketh that he shall
have," and she plucked out her eyes and skewered them on
a thorn, and gave them to the ministers, saying, " Take that
which your prince desireth." The king, on being informed
of this, admired her constancy.
Triduana, no longer an object of amorous pursuit, was
allowed to devote herself to prayer unmolested at Restalrig,
in Lothian, till her death. S.Triduana was invoked by those
who had sore eyes. Sir David Lindsay speaks of people
going to S. Tredwell " to mend their ene," and of her image
there with the thorn transfixing her two eyeballs.
That the legend has some substance is clear from the
records of the saint at the different localities mentioned in it.

At Rescobie is still S. Triduana's fair. She is also found

at Tradlines. The first act of official iconoclasm at the
Reformation was the destruction of the church erected over
her remains at Restalrig. On the 21st December, 1560,
' Orkneyiiiga Saga, p. 414.

^ — ^
itwas ordained " that the kirk of Restalrig, as a monu-
ment of idolatry, be raysit and utterlie cast down and de-
stroyed."

S. BRIGET OF SWEDEN, W.
(A.D. 1373.)

[Roman Martyrology. Canonized by Boniface IX. in 1391. Authori-

ties : —
The Bull of her Canonization a life by Birger Gunnarsen, arch-
;

bishop of Upsala, 1496-1519 and another life by Berthold, monk

;

of S. Salvador. Another life, the Chronicon de S. Brigitta, by Marga-

retta, abbess of Wadstena, circa 1430 ; also the Diarium Vazstenense,
1 344- 1 545. The Revelations of S. Briget have gone through numerous
editions, and have been translated into Italian, French, German, English,
Swedish, Dutch, &c.]

S. Briget, or more properly Birgitta, was bom at Finnstad

near Upsala, in Sweden, in 1302. was Birgir, Her father
lag77ian man, the founder of many
of Upland, a pious
churches and of the monastery of Skoo on the Maeler lake.
His wife, Ingibjorg, was daughter of Sigrid the Fair and
Bengt, brother of Earl Birgir. Sigrid was of low extraction.
On account of this the haughty Birgir sent his newly-married
brother a coat, half of which was made of the costliest velvet
wrought with gold, and the other of the coarsest homxcspun.
Having caused the homespun to be embroidered with pearls
and gems, so that it became of more worth than the velvet,
Bengt returned it to Birgir, to remind him that beauty and
virtue are of greater value than noble birth.
The earl grew angry, and threatened his brother with a
visit. Bengt left his home the day Birgir was expected ; but
his wife received their guest so well, and behaved so sweetly
and prudently, that he was not able to resist the grace of
this " gem among fair women." Next day when Bengt
returned home, Birgir hastened to meet him, and assure him
Oct 8.
S. Briget of Sweden. 183

that he fully approved his marriage, " Hadst thou not taken
her to wife thyself, brother, in good faith, I might have done
^
it myself."
One night, say the chroniclers, a glorious maiden in rich
attire was seen in the heavens, bearing in her hand a scroll,
inscribed with these words :
" Of Birgir is born a daughter
whose fame shall be sung throughout the world "
!
That
selfsame night was born the lady Birgitta, — Britta as she is

called in Sweden.
But her mother was nigh perishing in a storm at sea, by
shipwreck, but was saved by Dukes Eric and Waldemar,
and she came ashore near Bredsatra, where a chapel was
erected in later times in honour of S. Britta. On the
promontory stands at this day the ruined chapel of grey
stone. Beside it is a solitary thorn tree, and a spring
covered over with a cracked slab of sandstone — S. Britta's

well. On the greensward by the strand a marble floriated

cross, twelve feet in height, marks the spot where Ingibjorg
first set foot on land. In the night the lady was informed in
a vision that she had been saved from drowning only for the
sake of the unborn child she bore in her womb.
The Lady Ingibjorg was a holy woman; she died not long
after the birth of Birgitta, leaving several children, of whom
Israel became lagman of the Uplands after his father; her
daughter Margaret married Nicolas Ingiraldsen, chief of Ham-
merstad ; another daughter, Catherine, married Gudmar, lag-
man of West-Gothland. Birger, Archbishop of Upsala, who
wrote more than a century after the death of Birgitta, tells

wonderful stories of her childhood, —how that when Birgitta

was hard at work one day, at the age of twelve, making feather
trimmings for her dress, an angel came and helped her. The

'
—
The Brahe family of whom Tycho Brahe, the astronomer, was a member are —
descended from Birgir and Ingibjorg, the parents of S. Birgitta. Birgir bore the
eagle's wings on his escutcheon, which are still the arms of the Brahes.
 was put aside and venerated after her death
bit of feather-work

as an august relic. At the age of fourteen she was married to

Ulf of Ulfsa, son of Gudmar, lagman o{ Nerik, and by him
had four sons and as many daughters. Her sons were Car],
Birger, Benedict, and Gudmar of these Benedict died before
;

he came of age, and Gudmar in infancy. Her daughters

were M^eretta, Caeciha, Catherine, and Ingibjorg. M^eretta
was married twice : first to Siord Ribbing and afterwards to
Knut Algoth, and became lady-in-waiting to Margaret, wife
of Hako, King of Norway. Csecilia was forced against her
will to enter the convent of Skening. Her brother Carl
thereupon went to the convent and carried her off, and she
married a knight, who was poisoned at the marriage of
Queen Margaret, daughter of Waldemar of Denmark, to
Hako of Norway, at the same time as Blanche of Namur,
Queen of Sweden. At that ill-fated wedding King Magnus
of Sweden tasted poison, but his life was saved by his phy-
sician, Laurence Jonsen, and he gave the bereaved Ceecilia to
the physician as his reward.
Catherine, the third daughter, became a saint (March 24),
and Ingibjorg died young in a convent.
In her married life Birgitta was exemplary. She communi-
cated every Sunday and solemn festival.
She was appointed lady-in-waiting on Blanche of Namur,
the bad Queen of Magnus Smek. Birgitta was all this while
in the habit of seeing visions, having revelations, and relating
them as messages from heaven to all whom they concerned.
Magnus and Blanche were apt to make a joke of S. Birgitta,
and Magnus often asked her son, " Well, Birger, what did
your mother dream about us last night ? " Her visions were
sometimes of a political nature among other things was
;

revealed to her the manner of bringing about an eternal

peace between the kings of England and France, " which,
I if the former does not accept, he will prosper in none of

^ — ^
 -*

Oct. 8] S. Briget of Siveden. 185

his transactions, but will end and leave his

his life in pain,
kingdom and and anguish. His
his children in tribulation
family will set themselves against each other, and cause a
confusion that all will be astonished at." A prophecy ful-
filled by the calamilous death of Richard II., and the AVars

of the Roses.
But some of her revelations were of a more homely and
practical description. People were dirty in her day; for twice
it was revealed to her that, though it was not pleasing to
heaven that folks should take baths for the sake of enjoying
them, yet that Christians might, as a matter of health, be
allowed a tub every fortnight, or at any rate once a month.
One day, during the lifetime of her husband, on her
causing a state bed to be mounted with uncommon care,
she suddenly got a blow over the head from an unseen
hand, so that she could not move from sheer pain for some
minutes afterwards. Then a voice asked her why she took
such pains to lie softly. S. Birgitta, bursting into tears, had
the bed taken down ; and from that day, lady-in-waiting to
the queen though she was, she not only slept upon straw
and a bearskin, but made her husband do so also.
In one of her confinements she was attended by the
Blessed Virgin herself, if we may believe her biographers.
One day she learned that her son Carl had not fasted
on the vigil of S. John the Baptist. In an agony of grief
and horror she wept and fasted and prayed, till the holy
Precursor appeared to her and said: "Because thou hast
wept at thy son's offending me, in not fasting on my vigil,
and would rather see him my servant than an earthly
monarch, I will support him, and be his patron and pro-
tector."
At last she persuaded her husband to accompany her on a
pilgrimage to Compostella. On his way, Ulf fell ill, and she
urged him incessantly to make a vow to enter a monastery.

-*
1 86 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. s.

He consented, under the fear of death, and entered the

Alvastra monastery, where he died. She was now free to
follow her own desires. She rambled in pilgrimage through
Norway to the tomb of S. Olaf, into France, to Tarascon, to
the shrine of S. Martha, to Marseilles to visit the relics of
S. Mary Magdalen, to Cologne to venerate the heads of the
three kings; and finally she went to Rome, accompanied by
her sons Birger and Carl. With them she was presented
before the Pope. Birger was dressed in a long habit reaching
to his feet, girded about his waist ; Carl stood erect in
knightly guise, with a short kirtle, girded round his waist by
a silver belt bearing a dagger. " He wore over all a mantle
on which were sewn entire ennine skins, from top to bottom,
so that when he walked it looked as if ermines were running
over him; and each ermine's head had a little gilded bell
hung about the neck and a gold ring in its mouth." When
the Pope saw them, he said to Birger, " You are your
mother's son;" then turning to Carl, he said, "You are a
son of this world." Birgitta flung herself at the feet of the
Pope and implored him to absolve her sons their sins. Then
the Holy Father felt the belt and mantle of Carl, and said,
" The weight of these articles will expiate the sin of wearing
them." " Let your sanctity absolve him," said Birgitta,
" and I will disbelt him."

S. Britta went on with her sons to Naples, in 1362, where

Joanna was Queen. Joanna had been married in early

youth to her kinsman Andrew, of the royal house of Hun-
gary. She stood arraigned before the world as an adulteress,
— if not an accomplice, as having connived at the murder of

her husband. Louis, King of Hungary, invaded the king-

dom to avenge his brother's death, and to assert his right to
the throne as heir of Charles Martel. Joanna fled to Avig-

non, and obtained from the Pope a dispensation for her

marriage with her kinsman, Louis of Tarento. She returned
 -*

Oct. 80 •^- Briget of Siveden. 187

to Naples, having sold to the Pope the city of Avignon, and

part of her kingdom of Provence. War continued to rage in
Naples between the Hungarian faction and that of Joanna
and Louis of Tarento. At length the determination of the
contest was referred to the Pope. Joanna pleaded that she
had been placed under a magic spell, which had compelled
her to hate her husband and stain his honour. The Pope
admitted this plea, and Joanna was absolved by Clement VI.
Louis of Tarento died in 1362, and Joanna married James
of Aragon, King of Majorca, on his escape from prison, in
which he had languished twelve years. Joanna took a dis-
like to him, as she had to her first husband, and he retired

to Catalonia in 1375. Joanna was forty-six when S. Britta

arrived with her two handsome sons. Before they were
presented to the queen, S. Britta gave her sons instructions
how to conduct themselves in her presence ; they were to
prostrate themselves and kiss her foot. Birger, who had
gone in a long dress before the Pope, was most obsequious
and demure. But the gay, handsome Carl, instead of
bending to the foot of Joanna, went boldly up to her and
imprinted a very hearty kiss on her red Hjds. This so delighted
Joanna that she vowed she would marry none but Carl. In
vain his mother protested that he had a wife in Sweden his —
third wife. That was no impediment, said Joanna Sweden :

was a long way off, and some excuse for a divorce might
easily be raked up. Whether Carl was dazzled by the pro-
spect of a crown, and inclined to forget his fair-haired Catha-
rine in the Swedish Uplands, is not certain, but seems
probable, for S. Britta could not get him away from Naples.
The queen was madly in love with him and quite ready to
shake off the odious James of Aragon. Britta had no re-
source but her prayers. They were answered, and Carl died
of fever at Naples on Ascension Day, 1372.
On the death of her husband, S. Britta had entered the
-^
 :

monastery of Alvastra, and gave herself up to extravagant

self-mortification. She abandoned the use of linen, and for
her bed had but one bolster and pillow, and, instead of
covering herself with eider-down quilts, flung her clothes
over the coverlet to keep her warm. Every Friday she
dropped melted wax on her flesh till she had established a
blister,and then kept it raw with her nails till the ensuing
Friday. On the same day she took bitters made from the
root of the gentian. She wore a knotted cord round her
waist, next her skin, to gall it incessantly, and sought out
various other ways of tormenting herself. Her alms were
most profuse. At Rome three years elapsed without her
receiving a remittance from Sweden. Yet Britta continued
giving alms. " Much better pay your debts," said her
steward ; " there is no charity in giving what is not your
own." The saint silenced him, but her creditors became
clamorous, and would have carried her to prison, had not
she received a revelation from the B. Virgin that the money
—
would soon arrive and so it did. In 1344 she built the
monastery of Wadstena, in the diocese of Linkoping, and
placed in it sixty nuns and twenty-five austere canons,
thirteen of whom were priests, four deacons, and eight lay-
brothers. The convents of the men and women are separate,
but they made use of the same church, the women sitting in
a gallery, the men below on the floor.
After S. Britta had spent two years in Wadstena, she under-
took a pilgrimage to Rome, and remained there till her death,
except only when she paid a visit to Jerusalem, in company
A\ith her daughter Catherine. She composed a book of
prayers on the sufterings and love of Christ, which are very
beautiful, and show that she was a woman of fervent spirit
also a Rule, in thirty-one chapters, for thenuns and friars of
her Order ; it was approved, in 1363, by Urban V., under the
title of " The Rule of the Order of Our Saviour." Also a
 -^

Oct. 8.]
6'. Briget of Szveden. 189

" Book of Revelations," a very popular work, and interesting

to some persons. And lastly, an " Angelical Discourse on
the Excellence of Our Lady."
She died on July 23, 1373, aged seventy-one. Her body
was laid in the church of S. Laurence, in Panis Perna, be-
longing to a convent of Poor Clares, at Rome ; but a year
after her death, in July, 1374, she was dug up, and her
body removed to VVadstena, the Pope begging to retain, as a
special favour, one arm ; a second is still preserved at Lund ;

a third at Wadstena; and a fourth, enshrined in a gilded

silver case, may be seen in the museum of Stockholm.

-*
Ij,
_ »J«

190 Lives of the Saints. [oct. 9.

October 9.

S. Abraham, Patriarch in Palestine.

S. DioNYsrus THE Areopagite, B.M. at Athens; circ, zndceni.
S. Demetrius, B. o/Alexatidria; a.d. 231.
SS. DiONYSius, B.M., RusTicus, and Eleutherius, mm. at
Paris ; circ- 286.
SS. Andronicus and Athanasia, C.C. in Egypt ^th cent. ;

S. Savin, //. in Lazndan, in t/te Pyrenees ; $th cent.

S. Arnoald, B. of Metz ; -jth cent.
S. Ghislain, C. at S. Ghislain in Hainaitlt ; ciic. a.d. 63i.
S. Deusdedit, Ab. of Monte Casino ; a.d. 834.
S. Robert Grostete, B. 0/ Lincoln ; a.d. 1253.'
S. LoaiS Bertrand, 0-P. at Valeniia in Spain ; a.d. 1591.

S. DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE, B.M.

(2ND CENT.)

[The " Martyrologium Parvum," drawn up in the 8th cent. "At

Athens, under Adrian, the passion of S. Dionysius the Areopagite, as
Aristides witnesses in his work,which he composed on the Christian
Religion ;" this on Oct. 3 and on Oct. 9, " At Paris, Dionysius the
is ;

bishop and his companions slain by the sword by Fescermius.' The

Martyrologies of Bede, Ado, Notker, Usuardus, and those of Virdun,
Lyons, and Rheims, all belonging to the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries,
distinguish the two Dionysii. All these commemorate the Areopagite
on Oct. 3. So also the Greek Menology of the Emperor Basil, which
makes him suffer at Athens.]

r would appear that at least three different per-

sons have been confounded under the name ol
Dionysius: i. Dionysius, the convert, friend, and
companion of S.Paul, who " clave unto him" at
Athens;^ 2. Dionysius, the apostle and patron saint of
France ; and 3. The author of the so-called works of Dio-
nysius. The identification of the first with the second was,
'
Never canonized, but inserted in the Anglican Martyrology of Wilson.
' Acts, xvii. 34.
 *

FESTIVAL OF THE MATERNITY OF THE B.V. MARY.

(Second Sunday m October.)
From the Vienna Missal.

-*
Oct.— Part I.
 *
Oct. 9.] S. Dio7iysius, 191

at least in the Western Church, the work of the 9th century.

S. Gregory of Tours, a.d. 570, states expressly that the
Dionysius who was the Apostle of France was sent in the
time of Decius (circ. a.d. 253); and Sulpitius Severus (a.d.

410) places the first Gallic martyrdom as late as the reign of

Antoninus (a.d. 167-181), which could not have been correct
had Dionysius, the friend of S. Paul, suffered under Domitian
in apostolic times.
Michael the Stammerer, Emperor of the East, sent a copy
of the Dionysian writings as a fitting present to Louis the
Pious, son of Charlemagne, King of France and Emperor of
the West. These writings were attributed to Dionysius the
Areopagite, the disciple of S. Paul. Their real date is the
end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century. These
writings arrived at Paris on the eve of the Feast of S. Denis
of France, and were carried in state to the abbey erected
over the remains of the patron of France. And, "as though
it had come down from heaven, such was the divine grace
which followed, on that same night Christ our Lord deigned
to work, to the glory of His name, through the prayers and
merits of His most renowned martyr, nineteen most marvellous
miracles, in the healing of persons well known and living in
our neighbourhood, sick of various infirmities."^ Hilduin at
once produced a forged life of S. Denis, which he pretended

was written by the son of a Parisian chief, the first convert

of Dionysius. He may have sought thereby to exalt the
dignity of his abbey and enhance the popular estimation of
S. Denis of France, but the act was a disgraceful and unpar-
donable one.
This life is, of course, utterly fabulous ; it shall be spoken
of under the head of S. Dionysius of Paris. But, before that,
the identification of Dionysius of Paris with the disciple of
S. Paul was an accomplished fact. In the reign of Dagobert
'
Letter of Hilduin, Abbot of S. Denis, to Charles the Simple.

-*
 (a.d. 632-646), the abbey of S. Denis was founded, and this

is probably the date of the simpler Acts which have been

published by the Bollandists and by Felibanus.
The identification of S. Denis of Paris with S. Dionysius
of Athens does not occur in the early Martyrologies, and
does not seem to have been general before the time of Hil-
duin's imposture. The Roman Martyrology identifies the

two ; and in the mass for October 9 the Collect and Gospel
refer to the Gallican saint, and the Epistle to the Athe-
nian. In the Legenda Aurea, the Bibliotheca Mundi of

Vincent of Beauvais, and all the great mediaeval encyclo-

p^edias, the two are identified without scruple with the author
of the so-called works of S. Dionysius. Such was the triune
saint to whom our great English martyr, S. Thomas of Can-
terbury, specially commended his soul when the sorrows of
death encompassed him.
Eusebius, on the authority of Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth,
says that the Areopagite became bishop of Athens. The
writings attributed him are certainly posterior. The
to
earliest known quotation from them is as late as the 6th

century. They are not quoted by any of the earher fathers.

S. Jerome makes no mention of them in his catalogue of

ecclesiastical writers. Many of the traditions and practices

described belong to a period long posterior to the time of the
apostles. And mention is made in them of an epistle of Ig-

natius, written shortly before his death, in the reign of Trajan,

and therefore two reigns after the death of the Dionysius who
is said to have quoted it. These and other objections are
ably considered by Mr. Westcott in a carefully-^vritten article
in the Contemporary Review,^ and he fixes the date of the
Dionysian writings at about a.d. 480-520. We see no reason
why they should not have been written by a Dionysius of
that time. The addresses and references to " Our great Pre-
' Vol. V 'R6''

^-
 ;

*
Oct. Q.J
6". Dionysius» 193

ceptor" (Paul), to "Our most holy of holy sons " (Timothy"),

" To my fellow-priest, Timothy," to " Good Timothy," to

" Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna," to " Titus, Bishop of Crete,"

to "John the Divine, apostle and evangelist, exiled in the

Isle of Patmos," &c., sit very loosely indeed upon the great
body of the works which they adorn, and might easily enough
have been inserted into one of the earlier copies of the text

by some more devoted than scrupulous admirer, in order to

gain greater authority for them. It may have been he, like-

wise, who selected from the New Testament " the one name
whicli combined Greek culture with Christian faith," the Dio-
nysius, to apply to these writers, much in the same way as
the Apocryphal Gospels were, doubtless with the best and
purest intentions, attributed not to those who actually, but
to those who
was presumed potentially might, could,
it

would, should, or ought to have written them.^

But though the authenticity of the writings must be re-
jected, they received an assent almost at once, which was,
practically, overwhelming. T'hey were considered to be
the Avorks of the Areopagite by Leontius of Byzantium and
S. men of learning and authority
Anastasius the Sinaite, both
in the 6th century by S. Maximus, one of the greatest and
;

most philosophic minds of the 7th century; by Sophronius

of Jerusalem (circ. 638); by S. Andrew of Crete (c. 635)
by Michael Syncellus (c. 830) by S. John Damascene ;

(d. 760); by Simeon Metaphrastes (c. 901); by Suidas

(c. 1 081); by Euthymius Zigabenus (c. 11 16); and, in fact,

by all the great writers of the Greek Church of those ages.

They were likewise quoted as authoritative in several Greek
Councils.^
And finally, in the Latin Church they were likewise re-

'
They were
almost certainly composed at Alexandria. The influence of the
writings of Philo on them is very observable, as Philo De Fugativ. cc. 18, ig De ;

Nom. Heb. cc. 2, 3, &c. ; De Somniis, cc. 22, 26, 39.

' See Corderius, Opera S. Dionysii, edit. 1734.

VOL. XI 13
^ ^
 :

194 Lives of the Saints. \oa..^.

oeived as genuine as early as the time of S. Gregory, who

himself quotes the Areopagite in one of his sermons.^ In
the Acts of the Lateran Synod (a.d. 660) S. Martin quotes,
as a conclusive authority, " Dionysius egregius."
The titles of the extant Dionysian writings are: i. On

the Celestial Hierarchy On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy;

; 2.

3. On the Divine Names 4. On Mystical Theology 5. Ten

; ;

Epistles. The four first of these, taken together, form a

complete philosophical or theological system, beginning (i)

with God (or pure Being), descending step by step through

His manifestations, from the highest spirits of heaven to
(2) the lowest things on earth, to the end (3) that the soul
may know God so far as He may be known, and (4) be
united with him as the only source of allGood and Blessed-
ness. The author alludes to six other works, now lost
I. On Theological Outlines; 2. On Symbolical Theology;
3. On the Soul; 4. On the Just Judgment of God 5. On ;

the Objects of Intellect and Sense 6. On Divine Hymns. ;

But as none of these have ever been heard of apart from

such mention of them, and as they are seldom referred to
except in those places where the writer is least inclined to

add more, it has been thought that these works were in con-
templation by the author, but were never written.
Of the value and importance of the writings of the pseudo-
Dionysius it is scarcely possible to speak too highly.

^ Homn. 34.
 S. DENYS,
supported by two angels, and carrying his head— a Christian lady, S. CatuUa, is holding
his winding sheet or shroud— Above: the shroud is being wrapped around the head.
After a Mmiature in a MS. of the XIV. Century. Oct. 9.
 -*

Oct. 9-] vSkS*. Dionysites RusticuSy Eleutherius. 195

^

SS. DIONYSIUS, B.M., RUSTICUS, AND

ELEUTHERIUS, MM.
(about a.d. 286.)

[The Roman Martyrology confounds Dionysiiis of Paris with Dionysius

the Areopagite. So also the Galilean Martyrologies, and all Martyrologies
since the time of Hilduin, abbot of S. Denys, d. 814. The Acts of the
Martyrdom of S. Dionysius and his companions in Bosquet, and those
published by Felibian, are founded on popular legend or the forgery of
Hilduin, and are historically worthless.]

S. Dionysius, according to the story which passes for his-

tory, was sent by S. Clement, on whom S. Peter had conferred
the bishopric of Rome, to found the Church in Gaul. He
came to Lutetia Parisiorum, a city destined to become the
capital of France, and there preached the Word. The narra-
tive of Hilduin is somewhat fuller. Dionysius was an Athe-
nian, the disciple of Hierotheus, and was consecrated bishop
of Athens by S. Paul. Having visited Jerusalem for the
purpose of seeing the B. Virgin, he found her so beautiful
that he felt disposed to worship her. He then went to
Ephesus, where he conferred with John the Evangelist,
S.

and after that journeyed to Rome, where he received com-

mission from S. Clement to evangelize the Parisians. At
Paris he was exposed to wild beasts, but they came and
licked his feet. This miracle, far from converting the Pa-
risians, exasperated them to redoubled fury, and they cast
him into a burning fiery furnace, whence he, however, issued
unharmed, like Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego. The
exasperated Parisians then crucified him, but he preached to
them from his cross. He was taken down and led back to
prison, along with his companions Rusticus and Eleutherius,
his deacon and subdeacon. The three prisoners were exe-
cuted with the sword, on the hill afterwards called, from the

-^
 1 96 Lives of the Saints. [oct. 9.

event, " The Martyr's Mount," Montmartre. The hill really

derives itsname from the god Mars it was Mons Martis. —
Hilduin adds that the body of Denys got up, took its ex-
S.

head in its hands, and, accompanied by a choir of angels

singing " Alleluia," earned it to the place where now stands
the abbey of S. Denys.
The first to mention S. Denys, or Dionysius of Paris, is

S. Gregory of Tours, d. 594, three hundred years after his

death. But this is not the most serious objection to the
reception of the story. It has been argued that the worship
of Dionysus (Bacchus), the god of the grape, was established
and that the great festival of Dionysus, singularly
at Paris,
enough coincides with that of the saint of the same name, in
October, the season of the vintage.
Dionysus was surnamed Eleutheros, as the founder of the
first mysteries, and two festivals were celebrated in his
iionour, one in the city, urbana, the other in the fields,
rustica. During these feasts a day was dedicated to De-
metrius, King of Macedon, who gave to Dionysus his
daughter Aura- Placida ("the light breeze") as wife. Now
curiously enough, on October 4th was venerated S. Aura, V.,
Abbess, at Paris ; on October 5th S. Placidus, Mk. M.,' on
October 7th S. Bacchus, M., on October 8th S. Demetrius,
M., on October 9th SS. Dionysius, Eleutherius, and
Rusticus, and again a S. Demetrius. Till last century, the

festival of the vintage, the legacy of the old pagan feast, was
celebrated at Paris on the 8th and 9th of October, and it

has been thought that as on this occasion wine made the

merry-makers lose their heads, the fable of the martyrdom
of S. Dionysius had reference to this phenomenon. But
this argument is too plausible to satisfy. S. Placidus, though
much fable has attached to his name, was a real personage,

so was S. Aura, abbess at Paris in a.d. 631. Her existence

'
S. Placidia on Ocl. ii.

^ ^
 -*

Oct. 9.] SS. Dio7iysms, Rusticus, Eleutherms. 197

as a real person embodiment of pleasant

and not as an
breezes, can be very satisfactorily established. The S. De-
metrius of October 9th was Bishop of Alexandria, and
pronounced sentence of exile on Origen. It is quite possible
that there may have been a Dionysius, bishop and apostle
of the Parisians.
The Acts, it must be admitted, suspiciously recall the
martyrdom of Zagreus- Dionysus.
One of the first converts of Dionysius is said to have been
a Parisian noble named Lisbius ;Montmorencys derive
the
their pedigree from this personage, whence their battle cxj
and motto :
" Dieu aide au premier Chre'tien." The mansion
of Lisbius became the home of S. Denys ; it was afterwards
converted into a church and is now S. Barthelemy, before
the Palais de Justice. Hilduin, Abbot of S. Denys, when
he forged the acts of S. Dionysius, pretended that they were
writtenby Visbius, son of Lisbius. The battle cry of the
French kings, " Montjoie Saint-Denys !" is said to have
originated with Clovis, who shouted, " Mon Jou Saint
Denys !" — My Jove shall be S. Denys.
Before the Revolution the bodies of SS. Denys, Rusticus,
and Eleutherius were preserved in three silver shrines in the
Abbey of S. Denis. The bones were saved by a monk
named Warenflot, and restored to the abbey church in 1819.
The entire skull of S. Denys also at Longpont in the diocese
of Soissons. Other relics at Ratisbon.
S. Denys is represented in art as a bishop, holding his
head in his hands, sometimes also widi a sword.

-^
 " ^

^ —
198 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.g.

SS. ANDRONICUS AND ATHANASIA, CC.

(5TH CENT.)

[Modem Roman Martyrology. By the Greeks on Feb. 27, and

Alhanasia separately on July 22. Authority : — the Greek Acts.]
There lived at Antioch, in Syria, a silversmith, named
Andronicus, and his wife Athanasia, fearing God and show-
ing love to their neighbours. All the gains of his trade
Andronicus divided into three portions, whereof he spent
one on the poor, and one they lent to those driven by
necessity to boiTow, yet without exacting interest, and the
third portion he spent on himself and family. These good
people had two children, a boy and a girl, whom they loved
as the apples of their eyes. Now AA'hen Andronicus and
Athanasia had been married for twelve years, by the will of

God their two children died in one day. The father stilled
his grief and worked more patiently and silently at his craft
than before. But Athanasia was heart-broken and spent her
time by the tomb that contained her little ones, in the church
of S. Julian. And she stayed there clinging to the tomb and
sobbing, " Let me die with my children and be laid at their
side." But in the night, when all was still, and the lamps
burned dimly in the church, there stood an abbot before the
weeping woman, and said to her: "Woman, what aileth
thee ? why sufferest thou not the dead to sleep in peace ?

Then she answered :

" My Lord, be not angry with thy
handmaiden, because I am overwhelmed with grief. I had

two little children, and I lost them both in one day, and
they lie here."
Then said he, "Weep not for them ; for I say unto you,
that as human nature craves and cries out for food, and
languishes if it find it not, so do thy children crave and cry

^ ^
 „______ — „_ ^
Oct. 9.] SS. Aiidronicits and Athanasia. 199

out where they are to Christ, for the blessedness of future

things, saying, Just Judge, give us celestial comforts in the
room of those earthly joys of which we were deprived."
Now when Athanasia heard this, all her sorrow was turned
into joy, and she looked to speak to the abbot, but could not
find him. Then she went to the keeper of the gate and
said :
" Which way went the abbot who was in the church ?"
But he answered, " There has been no abbot here." Then
she knew had appeared
that the Blessed Julian, the martyr,
to her under the garb of a monk. And she went forth, and
came to her husband and told him all, and besought him
tliat he and she might together renounce the world and
retire into a monastery, where they might prepare to meet
their little ones.
He consented, for his heart was very heavy, and all his

hopes and ambition in this world were at an end when the

earth closed over the white faces of his children.
Then they made presents to their servants, and gave over
the rest of their substance to the heir-at-law, and taking with
them only a little sum they left the house. But when they
had got into the street, Athanasia turned round and looked
up at the old house in which she had spent so many happy
years, at the window where she had sat nursing her pretty
children, and sobbed and said " O Lord God, who saidst:

to Abraham and Sarah, Go forth from your land and from

your kindred, to a land that I will show you, guide us, I
pray Thee, in the way of Thy fear. So we leave our
house door open out of love for Thee do thou unclose to ;

us the door of Thy kingdom."

Then both wept and went on their way.
And when they had come to Jerusalem they venerated
the sacred places, and they sought the Abbot Daniel in the
solitudes of Scete in Egypt,^ and asked his advice. He bade

' Daniel, abbot in Scete, is mentioned in the "Acts of S. Arsenius " as living after

^ ^
Andronicus go to the monastery of Tabenna, and then he
placed Athanasia in a laura of Scete that she might hve in a
cell by herself, and only assemble with the monks for the
Eucharist on the Lord's Day. And as she was now past the
middle life, he bade her cut her hair and assume the habit
of a hermit. Thus passed twelve years. And then a great
longing arose in the heart of Andronicus to visit the Holy
Places once more. So he asked permission of his abbot, and
it was accorded him. He was now a very aged man,
bent, and he walked leaning on a staff, and had a long white
beard.
Now, he arrived towards noon at a tree
after several days,
in the desert,and he would have rested there, when he saw
another old man with grey hair and face scorched with the
sun, leaning against the trunk, exhausted with the heat and
with much walking. Then he saluted him and sat down,
and the two old men fell a talking together.
But it must be told that this second old hermit was
Athanasia, who was also on a journey to the Holy Land.
And when she saw her husband, her heart trembled, but she
would not disclose who she was. Andronicus, however,
knew her not, for her beauty had been burnt out by the sun
and worn away with fasting.
So Andronicus said "What is thy name, brother?"
:

And she answered : '"I am called Athanasius."

Andronicus said: "Whither art thou journeying, my
brother."
She replied, " I go to visit the Holy Places."
Then he said : "My heart yearns for thy society; let us
journey together."
So it fell out, by the Lord's Providence, that the old man
and his wife made their last journey together. And they
A.D. 444. He also conveyed to Scete the body of S. Thomais. He is nieiitioned by
Cassian in his 4th Colloquy. Cassian had met and spoken with him.
 "

-*

Oct. 9.] SS. Andronicus and Athanasia. 201

came together to Jerusalem, and they prayed together, and

fasted together, and visited together the sepulchre of the
Lord, and together received the Holy Eucharist.
Then said Andronicus, " We will return to Egypt, and if

it please thee, we will return together."

And Athanasia said :

" I am well pleased that it should be
so."
And when they came to the tree where they had met, then
Andronicus pointed with his staff, and said, " Thither lies

my way." And she pointed in another direction, and said,

" But my way lies yonder." And both were exceeding
sorrowful.
Then said Andronicus, " Brother Atlianasius, we are both
old, and ought not to dwell alone. Thy company has been
to me passing pleasant, and now I cannot bear to part with
thee. Come and share with me my cell, and should I die
first, thou shalt close my eyes ; but if thou diest first, then I
will lay mine hand on thine."
And Athanasia turned her face away and wept a Httle, and
then said :
" I will come So the old
with thee, my brother."
people were reunited; but Andronicus wist not that his com-
panion was his wife, only a great tenderness and love for his
associate was manifest in him. And thus passed several
years.
Now there
was an old hermit whom Andronicus knew, who
and conversed on heavenly things
visited his cell at intervals,
with him and Athanasius his companion.
One day, after this old hermit had left, Andronicus came
running after him, with tears on his cheeks, and crying, " The
Abbot Athanasius is migrating to the Lord !

So the hermit returned, and found Athanasius lying ill

with fever and the sick monk wept. Then said the hermit,
;

"What! dost thou weep, when thou shouldest rejoice that

"
thou art on thy way to meet the Lord ?

-^
 "

5<-

202 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 9.

But she said, " I am weeping for my friend Andronicus,

for I know that he will miss my society. And now, I pray
thee, when I am dead, thrust thy hand under my head, and
thou wilt find a scrap of writing, and do thou give it to An-
dronicus." Then they wept around the dying monk, and the
Holy Eucharist was brought, and Athanasia received the
Lord's Body and Blood, and sighed, and fell asleep in the
Lord.
Now when the monks came
to place the dead on a bier
for the funeral, a slip ofparchment was found under the
head, and it was given to Andronicus. And when he had
read it, he lifted up his voice and wept aloud, and threw
himself on the corpse, and said, " This is my wife Atha-
nasia !

So it was known through all the desert cells that the old
Abbot Athanasius was in truth a woman. Then from every
monastery and cell came forth monks and anchorites, even
from the remotest rocks far away
and in the wildest wastes,
they came in their white manner of
vestments, after the
Scete,^ waving branches of palms and green boughs; and
they bore the body of Athanasia to its last resting-place,
praising God with joy that He had magnified His name in a
feeble woman.
And the old hermit remained in the cell of Andronicus," that
he might celebrate the seventh day of the Blessed Athanasia,"
and after that he sought to bring the Abbot Andronicus away,
to be with him. But Andronicus would not leave that spot,
for he said he would tarry there till the Lord bade him rejoin
his wife. Then the hermit sadly said farewell, and took his
departure.But he had not gone a day's journey, when there
came one running after him, who said, " Return, for the
Abbot Andronicus is ill with fever." So he went back, and
sent a message to Scete, saying, " Come quickly, for the
'
So in the original Acts.

*-
 ;

^ ^
Oct. 9.] SS. AndrOpticus and A thanasia. 203

Abbot Andronicus is following Athanasia." And they hasted

and came, and found him breathing and when they had ;

prayed he fell asleep in the Lord, and he was laid beside

his wife and companion in religion, Athanasia.

S. SAVIN, H.

(5TH CENT.)

[Gallican and Benedictine Martyrologies. At Tarbes on Oct. ii.

The day of his translation on Aug. 5. Authority :
—a life by an
anonymous writer of uncertain date, incorporated in the office for S.
Savin in the proper of Tarbes.]

It was the good fortune of the writer in boyhood to occupy

one summer a chateau in the vale of Lavedan, on the moun-
tain side, opposite the height on which stands the interesting
church of S. Savin. The vale of Lavedan, one of the most
beautiful in the Pyrenees, is now rendered famous by having
Lourdes, the noted place of pilgrimage, at its mouth. It is

traversed by those who seek the baths of Cauterets, or the

beauties of Luz and the cirque of Gavarnie.
Argelez lies at the mouth of the lateral Val d'Azun, which
opens into the Lavedan. Thence a road ascends, shaded by
chestnuts and oaks, to the rich Romanesque west entrance of
the once famous and still interesting church of S. Savin.
The first appearance of S. Savin is eminently striking
the massive walls, the large rude stones with which it is

built, its beautiful portal, its exquisite side-door, its strange

extinguisher-shaped spire, the large space which it covers, as

if it was the sole occupant of that noiseless, deserted village
that surrounds it, impress one with mingled sentiments of
admiration and regret. The present church dates from

^ ^
 ;

204 Lives of the Saints. \oc\..^.

the 1 2th century, and has been frequently described by

archaeologists.
In the choir of the church, formerly abbatial, there is a
series of paintings on wood, in compartments, which set forth
the most remarkable events of the and death of S. Savin.
life

These paintings are ascribed to the and ex-

15 th century,
hibit no small artistic merit. It would be desirable that some
competent hand were employed to restore them, as the
colouring begins to fade and the inscriptions have become
indistinct.

S. Savin was born at Barcelona some time in the 8th cen-

tury. Shortly after his birth, his mother was left a widow,
and devoted herself with assiduity to his education. She
directed her labour to form his young mind for God rather
than for the world, by imparting early principles of piety and
religious knowledge ; his precocious intelligence admirably
responded to her care.
As he was bom in a high position, it was considered desir-

able to finish his education by residence in foreign countries

and his mother with difficulty was induced to consent that he
should pay a visit to the court of his uncle, Hentilius, Count
of Poitiers,^ which was one of the most brilliant then in
France. Savin left his beloved mother with a heavy heart.
His secret intention was to seek that knowledge alone which
could profit his soul; and accordingly, on his journey he
avoided the highways of great cities, and sought his lodging
generally in the Benedictine monasteries. In due time he
arrived in Poitiers, where he was cordially received by his

uncle, who caressed him as his relative, and treated him with
all the dignity due to a young prince. As a mark of his con-
fidence, Hentilius placed him in charge of the education of
his son and heir. This employment, which was one of dis-

'
There was no such Count of Poitiers. The legend has probably magnified some
petty noble into a count.

^ ^
 Oct. 9.] '^- Savm. 205

tinction, had no influence upon the heart of Savin, and he

continued to divide his time between prayer, the duties of
his situation, and the care of the poor. He Hved with the
greatest simplicity, fasted rigidly, dressed modestly, and kept
a most frugal table. He resisted all the temptations to
pleasure which surrounded him in that luxurious court, and
laboured to inspire the mind of his pupil with the sentiments
of piety and charity by wliich he himself was animated.
There is a pleasing sketch of this event of his life in one of
the compartments of the pictures which have been men-
tioned, with the legend, " Com S. Sevi instruix lo Filh deu
Comte en Santitat."
The result of this teaching in the heart of the young count
was an earnest desire to unite himself to his cousin, and
with him devote his life to the service of God in a monastery.
With this intention he left his father's house secretly, and
retired to the Monastery of Liguge, dedicated to S. Martin,
under the rule of S. Benedict, near Poitiers. Nothing could
exceed the anguish of the countess, his mother, upon learn-
ing this intelligence. She sought Savin at once, threw herself
at his feet, and in her desolation implored him to bring
back to her that idoHzed son whom she had confided to his
care. She cried out :
" Restore to me my child ; it is you
who have taken him away. You have a mother yourself,
think what Avould be her griefif you were to abandon her

for ever." She called upon Savin instantly to depart, and

compel his cousin to leave the monastery and to return to
the parental roof. But he replied that he too had left a
mother by whom he was adored, that he too had renounced
the most brilliant prospects, that he too had resolved to
abandon the world, and that he never could advise another
to hesitate at a sacrifice which he himself was about to make ;

that his Divine Master had said, "He who loveth father
or mother more than Me, is unworthy of Me." He
j, .

^
^ ..J,

206 Lives of the Saints. \.oc\..<i.

hastened to the monastery, but far from advocating the

wishes of the countess, he urged his cousin to remain faith-

ful to his call, and onsame day was clothed himself

that
with the habit of S. Benedict. He, with his cousin, entered
the noviciate, and during three years these two young friends,
to whom the world offered so much of its pleasures and
honours, voluntarily subjected themselves, for the love of
Jesus Christ, to all the austerities of the cloister, its obedi-
ence, its silence, and its poverty. The ceremony
of their
" clothing " is represented in one of the pictures " Com :

S. Sevi et lo Filh deu Comte Receben lors habits a Poeyties."

The ascetic spirit of Savin was not formed to be content

with the simple monastic rule ; it aspired to higher things and
sighed for greater perfection, in the eremitical life. He con-
sulted the abbot, but he prudently refrained from advising
him. Savin, however, persevered, and soon overcame all
doubting. He bade adieu and the monastery,
to his cousin
traversed France with and in the garb of a pilgrim,
tlie staff

living by the alms which he begged on the way, until divine

inspiration directed him to the valley of which he was or-
dained to be the patron and benefactor.
Having reached Tarbes, he presented himself to the
bishop, who then occupied the see of S. Justin and S. Faus-
tus, and having informed him of his project, obtained
his approbation and benediction. Having penetrated the
mountains by the glorious valley of the Lavedan, he found
a spot of unspeakable beauty, near where the Pic de Vixon
apparently closed the valley. Here there existed a Bene-
dictine monastery, which had been built upon the ruins of
in ancient castle, believed to have belonged to the Gallo-
Roman epoch, as its name, Palatium ^miliatium, would
indicate. This name it retained until the death of S. Savin.
Savin addressed himself to the abbot of this monastery,
whose name was Forminius. His reception by him forms the
J<. »J(

Oct. 9.]
^- Savin. 207

subject of one of the pictures Com S. Sevi Fo Recebut per

:
"

lo Abbat Formings The abbot received him

et los Religios."

hospitably, and learning from him his design, was not slow
to recognize in it the marks of a true vocation. He desired
much to retain the hermit in the vicinity of his monastery,
and with this object conducted him to a solitary spot in the

mountains, called Pouey-Aspe, about two miles and a half

distant, wild, uncultivated, abrupt, with the mountains of
Cabaleros at its back. However beautiful was the view that
met the eye from this spot, it was an interest of a different

order that determined Savin to adopt it for his abode.

From this place he could see between the rocks, in a solitary

valley near Villelongue, the hermitage where a countryman

of his, S. Orens, had lived in solitude for many years until
called to the see of Auch, and had a charm
this association

for the soul of Savin, giving him as it were a companion

from his native land to encourage and support him in the

desert.
Under the shadows of these lofty mountains, generally
covered \\ath snow and enveloped in frequent fogs, with a

climate as cold as if it belonged to the frozen north, Savin

found a retreat suited to his mortified spirit. He built with
his own hands a small hut, which was scarcely adequate to
shelter him from the weather or to protect him from the
wolves and bears. It took but little time to construct this
cabin, which was eight feet long and five feet broad, the

walls of dry stone and thatched with rushes. The Abbot

Forminius frequently visited Savin in his solitude, seeking

instruction from his conversation and edification from his

example. During one of these visits, a short time after he
had completed his hermitage, he was surprised to learn from
Savin that he considered his habitation too comfortable, and
had determined to arrange for himself a new style of abode
He dug a pit in the earth seven feet long and five feet deep,
 ;

^-

2o8 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 9.

and here he, as it were, buried himself alive — making a

grave his bed.
The abbot remonstrated with him, and endeavoured to
dissuade him from persevering in what he considered to be
an exaggerated penance. " I alone know myself," replied
the hermit ; " I alone can measure the expiation due for my
sins. Every person should do what he can; I have done
that which I ought."
In this place, like Elias on Mount Carmel, our saint
attained the most perfect spirit of prayer and mortification.
Clad in a single garment, which lasted him for thirteen years,
he used to walk bare-foot over the rocks, even during the
frozen winter. When the snow fell thick upon his hut, and
the night-wind shook its slender foundations, when through
the darkness no sound disturbed the silence save the roaring
of the wild animals, his fearless soul remained unshaken
absorbed in contemplation, he heeded not the tempest that
raged nor the beasts that howled about him.
Savin suffered much during the summer from thirst, the
little spring which suppHed him being dried up by the excessive
heats. On one of these occasions, in seeking to allay his
thirst at a neighbouring well, he had to cross the meadow of
a person named Chromasse, belonging to the village of Uz.
This man, irritated at seeing a beggar, as he thought, tres-

passing upon his land, sent his servants to drive him away.
They executed his order with much brutality, and one of
them struck the hermit and injured him severely. Savin
bore this with patience but, if we may trust the legend,
;

his Divine Master, taking vengeance into His own hands,

showed that His servant could not be outraged with im-
punity. The man who had assaulted him became possessed
by the devil, and his master was struck blind. But Savin, in
his charity, fell upon his knees and implored the Lord to
relieve the afflicted transgressors, and thus enable him to

*-
 repay evil Avith good. Thereupon the servant was delivered
from the demon, but Chromasse, was condemned
his master,

to remain blind for many years, until, touching the saint's

body after his death, he miraculously recovered his sight.

This incident is represented by one of the pictures " Com :

S. Sevi Feyta Sa Cella, Cromassio lo Menassa." Having

thus failed in his effort to slake his thirst, he sought relief

from God, and, Moses of old, striking the rock with his
like

staff, there issued forth an abundant stream which continued

to flow to this day.
As Savin progressed in holiness the fame of his sanctity
extended throughout the country. Whenever any misfortune
befell the shepherds on the mountains they resorted to him,
certain that his prayers would protect or relieve them. His
lieart and his hut were always open. If he had not wealth
to share with them, he had words that consoled, prayers
that healed, counsels that supported.
A priest of the valley was one day crossing the bridge of the
Gave, near Pierrefitte, when suddenly he and his horse fell
At the time the waters were swollen by the
into the torrent.
melting snow, and the priest felt himself carried along in
the flood to destruction. In this position he lifted his soul

to God, and his thoughts to the solitary of Pouey-Aspe.

Savin happened to see the accident from a distance, and,
witnessing the struggle with death, he prayed in faith and
tears for the deliverance of the dro\vning man, whose horse
by a desperate effort reached the bank. The priest, recog-

nizing in his rescue the interposition of Savin, hastened to

Pouey-Aspe to thank him for his preservation. This
incident is portrayed in the series of pictures :
" Com lo
Capera Tomba en la Ribera Se Reclama S. Sevi."
There is a tradition in the valley, that one evening, being
in his cell and wanting a light, he put the candle to his
heart, which emitted a flame that communicated itself to
VOL. XI. 14
^_ ^
* ^
2IO Lives of the Saints. \ocx.^.

the taper and continued to burn vividly throughout the

night.
At last Savin drew near to the close of his earthly pil-

grimage. Like so many holy men of all times, he had a

presentiment of his approaching death, and accordingly sent
for the Abbot Forminius to bid him a last farewell. The
abbot answered that he could not come until the next day,
as he was detained by business of the monastery ; thereupon
Savin sent a second messenger to him to say that " to-morrow
it would be too late, for a greater occupation would engross
him." When this intelligence became known, a number of

the monks and priests of the neighbouring parishes hurried

to attend his death-bed. Even when in this condition, he
still occupied himself with the interests and
of others,
nominated as his successor in the hermitage one whose
prayers and macerations should have for their object, like
his own, the edification and salvation of the people of the
valley of Lavedan.
When the supreme moment had arrived — tliat moment
full of ineffable joy for the elect, full of terrible mystery for
those Avho have loved the world more than God — blessed
Savin, fortified by the last sacraments, his hands extended
towards heaven, brow beaming, his lips murmuring,
his
closed his career earth and began tliat which knows
on
no ending. His friend. Abbot Forminius, was absent, but
the tolling of the death-knell announced to him and the
valley that their benefactor, their counsellor, was no longer
among them. Orders were issued for the removal of his
body from the hermitage to the monastery, whither it was
translated with great pomp and much mourning, and de-
posited in a tomb in the abbatial church, built on the site of

the Emilian Palace. Subsequently it was removed to the

apse of the church, and there it remains at the present
da}'.
 1

* —^
Q^j ^ J
S. Ghislain. 2 1

S. GHISLAIN, C.

(about a.d. 681.)

[Roman, Gallican, and Belgian Martyrologies. Authorities : —

a lif
written at the end of the 9th or loth cent, from documents, " Cartulis
antiquissimis."]

The name of this Saint, Gisel, Ghysel, or Ghyselen, in

Flemish means " a hostage," and according to his biographer,
he was born in Athens, not, however, of Greek parents,
perhaps, but possibly of Frank ones. He entered a

monastery of the Order of and was ordained priest.

S. Basil

He afterwards came to Rome, and thence rambled north

till he reached Hainault, and there settled in an old ruined

Roman fort, along with two disciples, Lantebert and

BeUirius.
One King Dagobert was out hunting, when the dogs
day.
roused a bear, which took to flight and sought refuge under

the mantle of Ghislain, which was hanging from the branch

of a tree whilst the saint was engaged in gardening. There
the bear stood at bay and the dogs would not touch her.

The huntsmen, thinking that Ghislain and his disciples had

bewitched the hounds, fell on them and beat them, till the

king, galloping up, bade them desist. "Why have you

arrested my dogs and deprived them of their prey?" asked
the king.
"Sire," answered Ghislain, "the bear came here, I did
not call her, and she took refuge under the shadow of my
mantle. Take her, I need her not."
But Dagobert would not hurt the bear; he called off his

dogs and retired.

Now when Ghislain had done his work, he arose and put
on his mantle; then the bear got up, and took the hermit's

i *
 2

-*

2 1 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 9.

" basket, in which was his mystery, which he used at the sacred

solemnity of the mass," ^ and walked forward, carrying it in

her mouth. Then Ghislain cried out, " O God of infinite

mercy ! assist me to recover what I have lost."

Then he and his companions ran after the bear. And

an eagle came and flew before them to show the way.
Presently they came on some shepherds watching their
flocks, and Ghislain asked, " Have ye seen a bear pass this

way, my masters, carrying something?" They answered

[lim, " We did see a she-bear go by, with something like a
garment in her mouth, and she went yonder to her lair."

Then Ghislain pushed through the branches and found

where the bear had her lair, and there were cubs in it, and
they were playing with their paws and mouths with tlic
vestment. And Ghislain adjured the bears to surrender
what they had and not to trouble him any more. Then
got,

he snatched his chasuble from the cubs and ran away with it.
Afterwards he built a monastery on the spot where the
bear's lair had been, and called it Ursidongus, but after
his took his name. At the old fort where he had first
death it

lived he was the means of founding a nunnery which he dedi-

cated to SS. Peter and Paul, for S. Waldetrude, the wife of
S. Vincent Madelgar. Waldetrude was a kinswoman of

Dagobert. Vincent Madelgar had deserted her in order to

become a monk, and had been shorn by S. Authbert at

Hautmont. Waldetrude lived at home with her children and

trained them carefully. But Ghislain sought her out and
urged her to leave the world, its obligations and responsi-
bilities, and take refuge in a nunnery. At his instigation

also, she placed her daughter, Aldegund, then a little child,

in the nunnery of Maubeuge. The old Roman fort where

Ghislain had settled belonged to that Hildulf, Duke of

Lobbes, whose wife Aia was a relation of Waldetrude. By

' His sacred vestment, as appears from what follows.

^-
 Oct. 9.]
'^- Ghislain. 213

the advice of Ghislain, Waldetrude bought the land and

founded on it according to his instructions the house of
canonesses, became the nucleus afterwards of
which the
to\vn of Mons. She is commemorated on April 9th.
In remembrance of the origin of their monastery, the
monks of S. Ghislain always keep a bear and an eagle.

S. LOUIS BERTRAND, O.P.

(a.d. 1591.)

[Roman Martyrology, at Valencia on Oct. 20. Beatified by Paul V.

in 1608, and canonized by Clement X. in 1671. Authorities the : —
Bull of his Canonization, and his life by S. Vincent Justinian Antesti, a
comrade of the saint. Also another life by Bartholomew Avignone,
O. P., in 1623.]

S. Louis Bertrand was born in the year 1526, of pious

Catholic parents, John Louis Bertrand and Joanna Angela
de los Exarches, his second wife, at Valencia, in Spain. He
was baptized in the parish church of S. Stephen, and in the
very font in which S. Vincent Ferrer had been regenerated.
His biographers think it was a sure presage of his future
when he was a little child he would cease from
sanctity, that
crying if given an image to play with. It was the custom
of the boys in Valentia to make little cones of wet gun-
powder, and fire them on the eve of S. Dionysius those —
small fireworks English schoolboys call " blue devils." The
father of Louis Bertrand, when a lad, was busily engaged
piling up a blue devil one vigil of S. Dionysius, when a spark
fell into the bowl of gunpowder he had beside him, and ig-

nited it. The explosion scorched his face and burnt the
eyelashes and brows off. Though he was scarred, he provi-
dentially lost neither his sight nor his life. His safety he
attributed to the intercession of S. Vincent Ferrer, and

*-
 ,

^ ^
214 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.

therefore maintained through Ufc an ardent devotion towards

that saint, and had his son Louis baptized in the same
font, and instructed him from early infancy in habits of de-
votion to that apostolic preacher. The commanding figure
of Vincent Ferrer, thus impressed on the child's mind by his
father, influenced his whole after Hfe.
At the age of fifteen the boy was fired with ambition to
make a pilgrimage to Compostella. He had got some way,
when his father sent after him, and, vmder the pretence that
his mother was dangerously ill, induced him to return home.
As the bent of the boy's mind was very decided, John Louis
Eertrand dressed him in a cassock. His mother, when she
came to change the sheets of his bed on Saturday, found that
he had often not slept in them throughout the week. He
had spent his night in prayer, or lying on the floor. She gave
him a scolding, and made a gimlet-hole in his door, through
which she might observe him. She saw him one morning
tumbling his bedclothes, to make believe that he had slept
in them, but in reality he had not lain on his bed all night.

He was obedient and gentle. His mother was wont,

rather more frequently than was necessary, to scold the ser-
vants. Whenever Louis heard her, he caught up a book
of pious meditations, ran to the scene, and began to read
at the top of his voice, till he had stilled his mother's

voluble tongue.
Louis took a strong fancy to join the Dominican Order, and
went to the convent of that society and besought
at Valencia,

the prior to admit him and invest him with the habit but ;

when his father heard of his purpose he hurried to the con-

vent, and told the prior that Louis had been a delicate, un-

healthy child, and was quite unfit for an austere life. On his
representation, therefore, the youth was refused admission.
Louis bore his disappointment with resignation, but walked
often by the sea, looking at the white walls of the convent,

ij,
_ .^
*- *
Oct. 9.] S. Louis Bertrand. 215

and crying when he heard the Dominican bell ringing for the
offices.

He waited his time, till the then prior, Fernandez,

was
removed, and another Johannes Mico, was in his
prior, F.
room ; and then, without saying a word to any one, being at
the time eighteen years old, he secretly made his profession

to the new and assumed the habit of a novice. His

prior,

parents were only aware of what he had done when he did

not return to their house at night. However, on account of
his bodily infirmities, the prior dismissed him shortly after,
but was induced once more to receive him by his persistence
in his intention to become a friar of the Order of Preachers.

For some time he abandoned study, that he might devote

himself to contemplation but as he began to form strange
;

and erroneous religious notions, either his own good sense or

the advice of his superior obliged him to read theology, and
he studied the works of x^quinas with great profit.

He had been invested with the Dominican habit on

Aug. 26, 1544; he took his final vows on Aug. 27, in the
following year, and was ordained priest in 1547, when aged
twenty-two. He was sent shortly afterwards to the convent
of Santa Cruz, at Lombai. One November night, in the
year following, Louis thought he saw his father standing
by his bedside, looking ghastly pale, and wrapped in a

winding-sheet. When he woke next morning he talked the

matter over with his confessor. An hour or two later came
a ring at the convent bell. A messenger from Valencia en-
treated Father T^ouis Bertrand to hasten forthwith to his
father's death-bed. The saint at once flew to his home,
and found his father dying. " My son," said the old man,
" I thought at one time it was a most grievous matter that
you, my eldest son, should have entered a religious Order,
but now it consoles me to see you in that habit." After his
father's death, Louis Bertrand beat himself, and fasted and

^ _ ___ . . _ >j.
prayed for eight years, to liberate the soul of John T^ouis
from purgatory. When asked why it was that John Louis
Bertrand was afflicted with penal fire for so long a time, his
son replied that the reason was- — so it had been revealed to
him —because had attended a certain nobleman's
his father
funeral. One morning Louis dreamed that he saw a friend,
Friar Raphael Caslello, up to his neck in water he told ;

him of his vision. Not long after, Father Castello went to

Majorca, and returned in the ship which was conveying the
queen-dowager to Spain. A violent storm arose whilst the
vessel was near Ivica. Then " an internal voice urged F.
Raphael Castello to get into the boat ;" accordingly the friar
scrambled into the boat, and made off in it, leaving the queen-
dowager, the captain, and all on board the ship to be drowned.
They perished accordingly, but the friar got safe to land,
though wet by tlie sea-water up to his neck. And so the vision
of the saint was verified by the event.
In 1549 S. Louis Bertrand Avas made master of the novices,
and ruled them harshly,' being anxious that they should taste
the discipline of the Order in its full severity before they took
the irrevocable vows. He was accustomed to scourge him-
self severely, and had certain chosen spots for the perform-
ance of which he particularly affected. Such
this discipline,

was the sacristy of the convent of Our Lady of Mercy, to

which he was most partial, as it was a gloomy spot, and very
frightening to a nervous person. Another favourite locality
was the schoolroom of the novices and there the walls and
;

floorwere sometimes splashed with his blood. One of the

novices threatened to tell the prior. " Silence, I implore
you, for the love of God," said Louis ;
" 1 will act more dis-

creetly in future." His discretion consisted in tying a towel

round his loins to prevent the blood from dribbling on to
the floor. He did not, however, confine his blows to him-
' " Novellos illos rigide aspereque educans."

-*
S. LOUIS BERTRAND. After Cahier.

Oct. 9-
 7

*
Oct. 9.] S. Louis Bertrand. 2 1

self, in his charity he distributed them freely among his pu-

pils, whom he whipped on the smallest excuse — for breaking
silence, for sleeping a wink too long, for a wrong note in
choir, and for the most trifling faults.' The reason why he
so severely lashed tlieir backs was, as he was careful to ex-
plain to them, to reduce the amount of suffering they would
have to endure in purgatory.
He urged on the novices the necessity for reading, for he
found that the more learned a friar became the more he loved
his cell; but he was very decided in forbidding the lay-
brethren the use of any book. The Rosary and the Lord's
Prayer were the only books for them, he said.

He possessed some common sense. When he noticed

how scrupulous two novices were about the saying of their
offices, how particular they were about mere trifles, " They
will never do any good," said Louis Bertrand. And so the
event proved, for they had to be turned out for disorderly
and disreputable conduct. A novice of a few months came
to him to inform him he was favoured with visions. " Oh,
so soon?" said Louis. " Then you are no good."
Father Clemens Benet having died, Louis informed the
brethren that he had seen him tortured in purgatory because
he had once allowed himself in hot weather to wear linen
next his skin. Father Clemens was at length liberated by
the prayers of the saint but his example served to awe
\

the brethren and novices, and make them renounce shirts

with holy horror.
An Indian was sent to the convent from America, who had
been converted and transformed into a Dominican. He
proved a very indifferent friar, but he was interesting as a
man. He fired the imagination of some of the brethren,
especially that of Louis Bertrand; and when he assured
them that preachers were often killed, and sometimes eaten,

' Just. Antcst. c. ii. 22.

-^
i^i-

2i8 Lives of the Saints, [Oct.»

by the savages, the enthusiasm of Louis was beyond restraint.

He implored his superior to send him to America. The prior

would not hear of his going, his relations refused money \

but Louis was intent on seeking martyrdom in the New

World. Finding him so resolved, leave was tardily accorded,
and he departed on foot for Setabi. When he was gone, the
friars overhauled his box, and found that it contained a choice

and varied collection of instruments of self torture horsehair —

shirts, iron chains, wire whips, and flat strips of tin perforated
with holes, for slapping the flesh and raising blisters.
At Setabi, a messenger from the prior overtook him and
gave him money purchase of an ass on which to ride
for the
the rest of his way.So he reached Seville and embarked on
board a ship bound for the mouth of the Magdalena.
Unfortunately, little of the history of the mission of the
holy man in Bolivia is known. He traversed great distances
and preached to the Lidians. He suffered severely from the
intense heat and from the remoteness of the stations from
each other. In Spain he had been able to confess twice a
day, whereas now he was deprived of this solace, save
occasionally. He arrived with his two servants, Moors
armed with guns, at an Indian village, where he preached
for several days without success. He ascertained that the
natives superstitiously venerated the bones of an idol priest,
and kept them enshrined in their temple. Louis, one
morning early, stole the bones, bundled them into a bag he
carried, and made off with them, along with his two guards.
It was not long before the Indians were aware of the
robbery, and Louis was pursued. The natives threatened
him with instant death unless he gave up to them what he
had taken, and Louis, alarmed at their gestures and threats,
surrendered the bones. The Indians would have given him
poultry and some peacocks in gratitude for having restored
to them their inestimable treasure, but Louis refused the

*-
 9

^ ^
Oct. 9.]
•5". Louis Bertrand. 2 1

present sternly, perhaps insolently, for he so irritated them

that they nearly fell on him again, but was rescued by the
cacique, who feared to embroil himself and the villagers
with the Spaniards, if the father was murdered.
As Louis addressed the natives in Spanish, not having
acquired their tongue, it is, perhaps, not Avonderful that his
sermons did not produce instant conviction in their minds.
His biographer indeed asserts that though he spoke in
Spanish the Indians understood him, but this was probably
near the Spanish settlements. He took with him at first an
interpreter, but the man, either by malice or through igno-
rance, did not faithfully explain the words of the preacher,
and Louis was obliged to dismiss him.
He converted and baptized a small Indian boy and took
him about with him as server at mass. On one occasion,
whilst Louis was absent, the natives, who were keeping a feast
to their gods, took the boy and sacrificed him, and on the
return of the father told him the lad had been eaten by an
alligator.

The barbarity with which the unfortunate Indians were

treated by the Spanish governors moved his soul to indig-
nation. On one occasion, when he was preaching in the
cathedral to a crowd of naked savages, the governor entered
with his men, cudgelled them, and saying, " Get to your
work, you idle rascals," drove them from the church before
S. Louis had finished his sermon.
At this time that most noble and heroic of men, Bartholo-
mew de las Casas, wrote his famous appeal to the Emperor
Charles V. against the treatment the poor natives met with
from Christian hands. He abdicated his bishopric of Chiapa,
and visited Spain, to wring from the sovereign protection for
the unfortunate, suffering people, and devoted the rest of his
life to the advocacy of their cause. When Louis Bertrand
heard that Las Casas was returning to Spain, a vehement

ii -*
^ .
1^

2 20 Lives of the Saints. [Od. 9.

desire came over him also to revisit his native land. He had
spent seven years in Bolivia, and he had had enough of it.

He Luke's day, 1579, and

sailed for his native land on S.

on reaching Seville pushed on at once for Valencia. He

reached that city late in the evening, and was obliged to
sleep outside the walls ; he laid himself to rest in his
brother's garden. On the morrow, when he came to his
convent, the friars were excited and delighted to see him
again, sunburnt and thin, but looking pale.
He remained there till the following year, when he was made
prior of S. Onuphrius near Valencia ; the convent was poor
and in bad repair. Louis rebuilt the tottering walls and
retiled the roof. In 1575 he was elected prior of the con-
vent at Valencia. One day he was rebuking a friar for his
ignorance; "Well," said the friar, "the devil was learned
and yet was damned." Some years after the friar died and
his soul appeared to Louis, according to the account of the
and informed him that he burned in flames till
latter, par-
doned by him for having answered so pertly. Louis is said
to have performed many miracles. In Bolivia he suspected
he was poisoned because he felt a pain in his stomach, and a
worm came out of his mouth. On another occasion, to con-
vince a native cacique of the truth of Christianity, he drank a
cup of poison before him without injury. The miracles he
performed were numerous. One rainy evening a Jesuit put
up for the night in his convent, his clothes were drenched,
and he had evidently caught a feverish chill. All night he
tossed on his bed with a racking headache but in the morn- ;

ing, when he visited Louis Bertrand and began to talk to

him, his headache went off. He was of the greatest assist-
ance to women in childbirth, and seems to have been sent
for on such occasions by the matrons of Valencia. His
prayers were believed to expedite matters.On one occasion,
when he could not attend personally, he wrote on a strip of

*-
^ ^

Oct. 9.]
S. Louis Bertrand. 221

paper, " Nesciens Mater Virgo virum, peperit sine dolore

Salvatorem, ipsum Regem angelorum sola Virgo lactabat

ubere de coelo pleno," and bade the suffering woman hold it

in her hand. She did so with the happiest results.

That great saint and reformer, S. Theresa, had recourse to
Louis Bertrand, and received comfort from his advice under
her greatest difficulties. When she wrote to him about her
design of establishing a reformation of the Carmelite Order,
he sent her the following answer :
" Because the lionour of

God is highly concerned in your intended undertaking, I

took some time to recommend it to Him by my poor prayers.
For this reason I deferred so long my answer. I now bid
you take courage in the name of the Lord, who will favour
you. It is in His name that I assure you your reformation
will be, within the space of fifty years, one of the most illus-

trious Orders in the Church."

S. Louis preached the divine word during twelve years,
without intermission, in several dioceses in Spain. He
trained up excellent preachers, who succeeded him in the
ministry of the word. The first lesson he gave them
was, that humble and fervent prayer must always be the
principal preparation of the preacher; for words without
works will never have the power to touch and change hearts.
Words must be animated by the spirit of prayer, and must
derive their force and efficacy from this source, or they will

be but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, pleasing

indeed to the ear, but not touching and firing the heart.
During the last two years of his life he was afflicted with

several disorders, under which he constantly prayed to God,

in the words of S. Augustine :
" Here cut, here burn, here
spare not, that I may find mercy for eternity." Under his
infirmities he showed no failing of zeal. In 1580 he
preached the Lenten course of sermons at Xatwa, and went
thence to preach in the cathedral of Valencia, but was so ill,

jf — — >J<
 that he had to be carried from the pulpit to his bed, from
which he never rose. Amidst the tears of all who surrounded
him he remained cheerful. The archbishop of Valencia
ministered to him with his own hands, giving him medicine
and food, till he gave up his soul to God, on the 9th of
October, 1581, at the age of fifty-five.
A portrait of the saint, painted after his death, was placed
by the Archbishop of Valencia in a chapel of his cathedral.
An engraving from it is given by the Bollandists.
The body of the saint reposes in a silver shrine in the
church of the Dominicans at Valencia ; it is visible through
glass. A silver statue of him has the breast open, and
exhibits one of his arm bones behind glass.

^ »J«
 -*

Oct. lo.]
6". Pinitus. 223

October 10.

S. Pinitus, B. o/Giiossus, inCrete; circ. a.d. i8o.

SS. Gekkon and CoMi'., MM. at Cologne; circ. a.d. 286.
S. Clarus, B. of Nantes ; beginning of ^th cent.
SS. EuLAMPlus AND EuLAMPiA, MM. at Nicomedia ; i,tli cent.
S. Bassian, C. at Constantinojilc ; circ. a.d. 456.
S. Cerbonius, B. of Pioiiibino, in Tuscany; circ. a.d. 575.
S. Paxti.inus, B. of York; a.d. 644.
S. Telechild, V. Abss. ofjonarrc; -jth cent.
S. Tancha, VM. at Treyes, in France.
S. John of Bridlington, C. in Vork ; a.d. 1379.
S. Francis Borgia, C.S.y. at Rome ; a.d. 1572.

S. PINITUS B.

(.A.BOUT A.D. 180.)

[Roman Martyrology. Ado and Usuaidus. Authority :

— Eusebius,
Hist. Eccl. iv. 21-23.]

USEBIUS speaks of Pinitus, Bishop of Gnossus,

in Crete, who lived at the time of Dionysius of
Corinth. Dionysius wrote to Pinitus, " not to im-
pose on the bretliren, witliout necessity, too severe
a burden in regard to purity, but to pay regard to the infirmity
of the great bulk of the people." To which Pinitus, writing in

reply, said that he admired and applauded Dionysius, but ex-

horted him, at the same time, to impart some time or other
food which was stronger to his flock, and to feed tliem with
writings" abounding in more perfect doctrine, so that they
might not remain constantly imbibing the mere milk of doc-
trine, and grow old under a discipline calculated for children.
" In this epistle also, the correct views which Pinitus cherished,
and his solicitude for those committed to his care, also his

learning and intelligence in divine matters, appear evidently."

I
^
^-

2 24 Lives of the Saints. oct. lo.

SS. GEREON AND COMP. MM.

(about a.d. 286.)

[Ado, Usuardus, Floras, Sarum, York, and Hereford, German and

Modem Roman Martyrologies. Authority —
a Passion by Ilelinand of
:

Froimont in the 13th cent.]

The greatest confusion concerning these martyrs reigns in

the ancient Martyrologies. The names of the martyrs vary ;

there are Gereon, Cassius, Florentius, Victor, Agrippinus,

Marusus, and on these names changes are rung. A vague
tradition, floating down the stream of time, recorded that a
portion of the Theban legion, quartered at Cologne and at
Xanten, on the Rhine, had suffered about the same time as
Maurice and his company at Agaunum, and the Martyrologies
gave such names as were remembered. But of the facts

nothing was known, till gradually legend grew round them,

relics were discovered and attributed to them, imaginations
worked, and in the 13th century the passion of the martyrs
had been elaborated sufficiently for a monk of Froimont to
commit it to writing. The number of martyrs was made
318 or 319, or even 330. It is almost a pity that imagination
did not stretch a little further, and then there would have
been one for each day in the year. When the church of
Xanten was being enlarged, in 1284, the new foundations in

the old burial-ground intersected graves, and many bones

were found. These were eagerly assumed to have belonged
to the Theban martyrs, and, as such, receive veneration
there to this day.
In some ancient copies of the Martyrology of Jerome, the
passion of 316 martyrs at Cologne is stated, " whose names

God only knows."

S. Helena is supposed also to have found the bodies of

*-
>f( ^
Oct. lo.] SS. Eidampius and Eulampia. 225

the martyrs at Bonn, and to have erected churches there, and

in Cologne, over their relics. This is the story of Helinand ;

it does not demand serious consideration. According to

the same writer, Gereon suffered at Cologne with 318 com-
panions, and Victor with 330 more, at Xanten Cassius and
;

Florentius, and numbers not recorded, at Bonn. To

others,
fill up the gaps made by this butchery, Maximian was obliged

to send into Mauritania for some more soldiers but these, ;

on their arrival, were also found to be infected with Christian

belief. Another decimation took place, and some 360 more
were martyred, and their bones laid alongside of those of
Gereon and his companions. (See Oct. 15.)

SS. EULAMPIUS AND EULAMPIA, MM.

(4TH CENT.)

[Greek Meneea and Menology. Roman Maityrology. Authority :--

The Greek Acts, late and not trastworthy.]

The Acts say that Maximian, in his seventh year, issued

an edict against the Christians, and that Eulampius and
Eulampia suffered at Nicomedia, in Bithynia. The seventh
year ofMaximian is 293, when there was no persecution.
Moreover, Maximian did not bear rule in the East. His
palace was at Milan, that of Diocletian at Nicomedia.
But Maximinus did persecute in the East in 306, when
Caesar. Maximinus assumed the title of Emperor in 307,
and when persecution relaxed he renewed it. The persecu-
tion was stopped by edict of Galerius in 311. Maximinus
died in 313. Probably, though Acts, Mensea, and Me-
nology assert that Maximian was the persecutor,we must
read Maximin for Maximian. Maximin was made Caesar
in 305, and the seventh year may be 312. But not much
VOL. XI. 15
^ (j*
^ . .

»J,

226 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 10.

reliance can be placed on the figures or names in the late

Acts.
The edict given in tliem begins, " Maximianus, Emperor,
to the inhabitants of the metropolis of Nicomedia," &c. And
considering that Maximian had nothing to do with Nico-
media, and that the seventli year of Maximin as Emperor
would be 314, a year after his death, we may judge of the
worthlessness of such statements in the Acts,
When the persecution broke out in Nicomedia, Eulampius,
a young Christian, together with many other Christians, fled
and hid themselves in caves. After a while they had
the city
consumed all their provisions, and therefore were obliged to
send one of tlieir number into the town to buy bread. They
selected Eulampius, who, being a boy, might escape obser-
vation. Eulampius had unfortunately cliosen the day for

entering the city when all the inhabitants were attending in

the temple to offer sacrifice according to the commands of

tlie Emperor. The boy saw the edict nailed up at the gates,
and stood still to read it. The soldiers guarding the gates
spoke to him, and he turned and ran away. The watch
pursued him, outstripped and arrested him, and asked him
his name and why he had attemi)ted flight. As he did not
answer, they suspected that he was a Christian, bound him,
and put him in ward.
Next day he was brought before the prefect, and the guards
told their tale. But the governor, ])itying his simplicity and
youth, said, " Ye have acted wrongly and rashly. This is an
ignorant country boy, and ye have bound him without cause.
Knock oft" his chains, and place him by me."
The boy was at once freed and brought to the governor,
who addressed him kindly, saying, " Boy, what is your
name ? Are you a slave or free ? "
" I am the Lord's servant," answered he, " and my name
is Eulampius. I am of honourable birth."

^ ^
qn — ^^

Oct. lo.] 6'^S'. Eulanipius and Eulampia. 227

" Well, boy," said the prefect, " if you belong to an

honourable family, behave honourably, and go and sacrifice
and return to me."
" To whom shall I sacrifice?"
" To Dios, or to Apollo, or to the great goddess Demeter."
" He who trusts in them falls into perdition," answered
Eulampius. " They are but idols, the work of men's hands."
Then the governor was angry, and ordered Eulampius to
be stripped and beaten. After he had received many strokes,
the kind-hearted governor said, " That will do \ spare him,
and let him get up.'"
Eulampius rose, and defied liim and his gods, in language
excited and violent, and which seems to have been quite as
much an exhibition of temper in a boy smarting after a
whipping as of Christian zeal in a martyr for the foith.
He succeeded in sufficiently incensing the governor to
order his suspension on the little horse.
Suddenly, from among tlie bystanders broke a young girl,

who, rushing up to Eulampius, threw her aims round his

neck, sobbing. Tliis was Eulampia, his sister. vShe was at
once arrested, and conducted to prison along with her
brother, and on the morrow both were executed Avith the
sword.
The untmstworthy Acts have intruded a whole series of
tortures which do not hurt the martyrs. They are plunged
in boihng lead, and come forth refreshed, but cold steel in

these cases is and we may be quite sure when we

infallible;

read of a martyr suffering by the sword after a string of un-

successful attempts at execution by fire, water, poison, wild
beasts, cS:c., that these tortures were not tried, but are the
invention of the author of the Acts in their present form.

^ •{<
^ — — ^
228 Lives of the Saints. ^^^^ ^^_

S. CERBONIUS, B.

(about a.d. 575.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authorities —

Mention by S. Gregory the
:

Great in his Dialogues, and a life written not Ijcfore the loth cent.]

S. Cerbonius, a native of northern Africa, on the Vandal

invasion tied to Italy and came to Piombino, of which city
he became bishop. Tlie people of the neighbourhood were,
however, speedily tired of their bishop, for every Sunday he
rose at break of day and said mass. When they arrived at
the church the bishop and his clergy were breakfasting, and
they had to return to theirhomes without having performed
their religious duties. At length they could endure it no
longer, and complained to Pope Vigilius, who, on hearing of
what Cerbonius did, blazed up into wrath, and sent legates
to Piombino to bring the bishop to Rome. They arrived on
Saturday. Next morning very early, Cerbonius awoke and
said to his deacon, " Go out and see if the time has arrived
for mass." The deacon returned to say that a white streak
was showing above the eastern hills. Cerbonius and his
priests accordingly got up and said mass. Wlien the legates
crawled out of bed, they found the bishop and his clergy
enjoying their breakfasts.
" Come and eat with us,'' said Cerbonius.
" We are not heretics to eat before mass."
" That is over an hour ago," answered the bishop.
The legates started for Rome with the bishop. On the
way they got thirsty, them a spring of
and he discovered for
water. He cured three men suffering from fever, and
astonished the legates into thinking that, after all, he was a
saint, and not a heretic. When they came near to Rome,

*
 Oct. 10.] '^- Cerbonius. 229

they left Cerbonius and went on to Vigilius and told him of

the marvels wrought by the bishop on the way.
Whilst Cerbonius was waiting, he saw a flight of geese
coming his way. He at once made the sign of the cross
over them and said, "You have not licence from the Lord to
fly anywhere till you have followed me to the presence of the

Lord Pope." Then he marched fonvard with his staff", the geese
following demurely, —
and lo he met the Pope, attended by
!

his clergy in chasubles and dalmatics, with incense burning,

coming to do honour to the saint who had found a spring of
water and at whose word tertian ague had disappeared. The
two processions met and united, and the Pope, followed by
walked with Cerbonius and the geese in his train
his clergy,
to the altar of S. Peter's, where Cerbonius blessed the geese
and gave them leave to depart.
Next morning, at daybreak, Cerbonius went into the
Pope's chamber, pulled him out of bed, and made him put
his foot on his own foot, and his hand in his own hand, and
look up into heaven. He then asked the Pope, stupefied
with sleep, if he did not hear angels singing, and Vigilius
having said he did hear something of the kind, was allowed
to go back to bed again, whilst Cerbonius went oft" to say
mass. After this the Pope gave him leave to say his mass at
any hour of the morning that pleased him, and sent him
back at once to Piombino.
Totila, the Gothic King, is said by S. Gregory to have
exposed the old bishop to be hugged by a bear in the
amphitheatre, but the bear, instead of hurting him, crouched
at his feet and licked them. He was allowed to depart, and
he fled to the isle of Elba, and there died. His body was
brought back to Piombino, and there reposes.

*-
230 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 10.

S. PAULINUS, B. OF YORK.
(A.D. 644.)

[Martyrology of Bede, Ado, Notker, Roman Martyrology, York and

Hereford Calendars. Authority —
Mention by Bede. Tlie following
:

is a condensation from Montalembert's "Monks of the West."]

Eede informs us that about a century after the first

landing of the Saxons, under Hengist, in the county of

Kent, their neighbours the Angles, crossing the North Sea,
founded on the opposite coast of Britain two colonies, long
distinct, sometimes united, but finally combined together
under the name of Northumbria. The wall anciently raised
by the Emperor Severus, from the mouth of the Solway to
that of the Tyne, to check the Caledonian incursions, was
their boundary. The oldest of the two kingdoms was that
of the Bernicians to the north. Their chief, Ida who, — like

Hengist, claimed to be a descendant of Odin — established

his residence in a fortress which he called Bamborough,
after his wife Bebba, witli that conjugal reverence so often
illustrated even among the most savage Germans. The
British bards in return have named queen the Fair
this

Traitress, because she was of British origin and fought in the

foremost ranks on the field of battle against her countrymen.
The imposing remains of this fortress, situated on a de-
tached rock on the coast, still surprise and arrest the
traveller. From this point the invasion of the Angles
spread over the fertile valleys of the Tweed and Tyne.
The second colony, that of the Deirians, to the south, was
concentrated principally in the valley of the Tees and in rhe
extensive region which is now known as Yorkshire. The first

chief of the Deirians of whom anything is known was that

Alia or Ella, whose name —pronounced by the young slaves
*— ^
Oct, to.]
S. Pattlinus. 231

—
exposed for sale in the Forum suggested to S. Gregory the
hope of soon hearing the Allekiia echo through his kingdom.
This region to the north of the Humber was precisely that
which had suffered most from the Caledonian incursions and ;

according to some authors, the Saxons of Hengist, called in

the character of aUies by the Britons to their aid, were already
established before the arrival of the Deirian colony. But
Ida and his Angles would not in any character hold tenure
under Germanic compatriots from the south of the
their

island,and instead of fighting against the Picts and Scots

they leagued themselves with them to crush the ill-starred
Britons.
Ida, who hadtwelve sons, and who reigned twelve years,
used and sword against the natives with such animosity
fire

that the British bards surnamed him the Man of Fire, or the
Great Burner. They withstood him to the last extremity,
and he fell in battle against them. But his grandson, Ethel-
frid, took a terrible revenge. He was Ella's son-in-law, and
at the death of the latter, and to the prejudice of the rights
of the chiefs son, Ethelfrid reunited the two kingdoms of
Deiria and Bernicia, and mustering to his own standard all

the Anglo-Saxons of Northumbria, he subdued or massacred

a greater multitude of the Britons than any other of the
invading chiefs. He was, says Bede, the ravaging wolf of
Holy Writ : in the morning he devoured his prey, and in the

evening he divided his spoil. The vanquished, who had called

his grandfather the Burner, had only too good cause to call
Ethelfrid the Ravager.
He had not, however, like his predecessors, the Cale-
donians for auxiliaries. They had become Christians, and
far from seconding the pagan invaders, the Dalriadian Scots
recently established in Great Britain came to the succour of
the Britons who were their fellow-Christians. Their king
Aidan marched against Ethelfrid at the head of a numerous
 232 Lives of the Saints. [Oa. 10.

army. The Scots and the Saxons met at Degotane, near the
existing frontier of England and Scotland. After a desperate
struggle the Scots' army Avas cut to pieces, and this defeat
put an end for ever to any desire on the part of the northern
Celts to undertake the defence of their brethren of the south
against the Teutonic conquerors.
Having conquered the Scots, the formidable heathen threw
himself on the Britons of Wales. After this he completed
the conquest of Northumbria, and fell, ten years later, in an
encounter with his countrymen, the East Angles, under the
command of King Redwald.
East Anglia, as the name itself indicates, was occupied
by a colony of the same race as the Angles of Northumbria.
On the death of the first Christian king of Kent, Redwald
inherited the title of Bretwalda, which gave him a certain
military supremacy over the whole Anglo-Saxon federation.
He had given shelter to the son of Ella, who, while still a
child, had been dethroned by his brother-in-law, the terrible
Ethelfrid. This young prince, named Edwin, grew up at
Redwald's Court and had even been married to the daughter
of his protector. Ethelfrid, seeing in him a rival and a
successor, employed by turns threats and bribes to induce
Redwald to surrender the royal exile. The East Anglian
prince was on the point ot yielding, when one of the friends
of Edwin caine by night to apprise him of his danger, and
offered to conduct him to a place of refuge, where neither
Redwald nor Ethelfrid should be able to discover him.
" No," replied the young and generous exile ;
" I thank you

for your goodwill, but I shall do nothing. Why should I

begin again to wander a vagabond through every part of the

have too much done ?
island, as I If I must die, let it be
rather by the hand of this great king than by that of a
meaner man." Notwithstanding, moved and agitated by the
news, he went out and seated himself on a rock before the

^ ^
^ ^i

Oct. lo.]
-^^ Pciulinus. 233

palace, where he remained for a long time alone and un-

noticed, a prey to agonizing uncertainty.
All at once he beheld before him, in the midst of the
darkness, a man, whose countenance and dress were un-
known to him, who asked him what he did there alone in
the night, and added, " What wilt thou promise to him who
shall rid thee of thy grief by dissuading Redwald from
delivering thee up to thy enemies, or doing thee any harm?''
" All that may ever be in my power," answered Edwin.
"And if," continued the unknown, "he undertook to make
thee king, and a king more powerful than all thine ancestors,
and all the other kings in England?" Edwin promised
anew that his gratitude would be commensurate with such
a service. " Then," said the stranger, " if he who shall have
exactly foretold to thee such great fortunes, offers thee
counsels more useful for thy welfare and thy life than any
of thy fathers or kinsmen have ever received, dost thou
consent to follow them ?" The exile swore that he would
implicitly obey him by whom he should be rescued from
such great peril and made king.

Thereupon the unknown placed his right hand upon his

head, saying, " When a like sign shall be shown thee, then
recall this hour, thy words, and thy promise." With this

he disappeared so suddenly that Edwin believed he had

spoken not with a man, but with a spirit. A moment after,
his friend came running to announce that he had no longer
anything to fear, and that King Redwald, having confided
his project to the cpeen, had been dissuaded by her from his
breach of faith.

Under the generous influence of the queen, Redwald not

only refused to give up the exiled prince, but having sent
back the ambassadors intrusted with the costly presents of
Ethelfrid, he declared war against him. The result was that
Ethelfrid having been defeated and slain, Edwin was estab-

f^
*-

234 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 10.

lished as king in Northumbria by his protector Redwald,

who was now the chief of the Anglo-Saxon federation. The
sons of Ethelfrid, although on the mother's side nephews of
the new king, were obliged to fly like Edwin himself in his
youth. They went for refuge to the Dalriadian Scots. We
shall presently see what resulted from tliis exile to Northum-
bria and the whole of England.
Like his brother-in-law Ethelfrid, Edwin reigned over the
two united kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia ; and, like him,
he waged a vigorous war against the Britons of Wales.
Having thus become the dreaded chief of the Angles of the
North, he found himself esteemed and sought after by the
P^ast Angles, who, on the death of their king, Redwald,

offered him the sovereignty. But Edwin preferred to repay

the protection which he had received from Redwald and his
wife by leaving the kingdom of East Anglia to their son.
He reserved, however, the military supremacy which Red-
wald had exercised, as well as the title of Bretwalda, which
had passed from the King of Kent to the King of East
Anglia, but which, after being held by Edwin, was to remain
always attached to the Northumbrian monarchy.
Thus then was accomplished the mysterious prediction of
Edwin's nocturnal visitor. He was now a king, and more
powerful than any of the English kings before him. For the
supremacy of the Bretwalda, added to the vast extent of
country occupied by the Angles of the north and east, se-
cured to the King of Northumbria a preponderance alto-
gether different from that of the petty kings of the south who
had borne the title before him. Having reached this un-
hoped-for elevation, and having lost his first wife, a daughter
of the King of East Anglia, he sought a second bride, and
asked in marriage the sister of the King of Kent, the daughter
of Ethelbert and Bertha, a descendant of Hengist and Odin
through her father, and of S. Clotild through her mother.

^
 Oct. TO.] S. Paulinus. 235

She was called Ethelburga, that is, '' noble protectress." Her
brother Eadbald at first refused the demand of the King of
Northumbria. He answered that it was impossible for him
to betroth a Christian virgin to a pagan, lest the faith and
the sacraments of the true God should be profaned by making
her live with a king who was a stranger to His worship. Far
from being offended at this refusal, Edwin promised that, if

the princess were granted to him, he would do nothing against

the faith which she professed, but, on the contrary, she might
freely observe all the rites of her religion, along with all who
might accompany her to his kingdom— men or women, priests
or laymen. He added, that he Avould not himself refuse to
embrace his wife's religion, if, after having had it examined
by the sages of his council, he found it to be more holy and
more worthy of God than his own.
It was on these conditions that her mother Bertha had left

her country and her Merovingian family, to cross the sea and
wed the King of Kent. The conversion of that kingdom
had been the reward of her sacrifice. Ethelburga, destined
like her mother, and, still more than she, to be the means of

introducing a whole people to the knowledge of Christianity,

followed the maternal example.
But the royal virgin was intrusted to the Northumbrians
only under the guardianship of a bishop, charged to preserve
her from all pagan pollution by his exhortations, and also by
the daily celebration of the heavenly mysteries.
This bishop, by name Paulinus, was one of those still sur-
viving Roman monks who had been sent by S. Gregory to
the aid of S. Augustine. He had been twenty-five years a
missionary in the south of Great Britain before he was con-
secrated Bishop of Northumbria by the third successor of
Augustine at Canterbury. Having arrived with Ethelburga
in Edwin's kingdom, and having married them, he longed to
see the whole of the unknown nation amongst whom he had

^ _ ,j,
>5<-

236 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 10.

come to pitch his tent, espoused to Christ. Unlike Augustine,

after his landing on the shores of Kent, it is expressly stated
that Pauhnus was disposed to act upon the Northumbrian
people before attempting the conversion of the king. He
laboured with all his might to add some Northumbrian con-
verts to the small company of the faithful that had accom-
panied the queen. But his efforts were for a long time fruit-

less ; he was permitted to preach, but no one was converted.

Pope Boniface V., at the suggestion, no doubt, of Paulinus,
addressed two letters to the King and Queen of Northum-
bria. He exhorted the glorious king of the EngHsh, as he
calls him, to follow the example of so many other emperors
and kings, and especially of his brother-in-law Eadbald, in
submitting himself to the true God, and not to let himself
be separated, in the future, from that dear half of himself
who had already received in baptism the pledge of eternal
bliss. He
conjured the queen to neglect no effort to soften
and inflame the hard and cold heart of her husband, to make
him understand the beauty of the mysteries in which she be-
lieved, and the rich reward which she had found in her own
regeneration, to the end that they twain, whom human love
had made one flesh here below, might dwell together in
another life, united in an indissoluble union. But neither
the letters of the Pope nor the sermons of the bishop, nor
the importunities of the queen, prevailed to triumph over
the doubts of Edwin. A providential event, however, occurred
to shake, without absolutely convincing him. On the Easter-
day after his marriage, an assassin, sent by the King of the
West Saxons, made his way to the king, and, under the pre-
text of communicating a message from his master, tried to

stab him with a double-edged poisoned dagger, which he

held hidden under his dress. Prompted by that heroic de-
votion for their princes which among all the Germanic bar-
barians co-existed with continual revolts against them, a
 —
^ — >J(

Oct. lo.] S. Paulinus. 237

lord named having no shield at hand, threw himself

Lilla,

between and the assassin, who struck with such

his king
force that his weapon reached Edwin even through the body
of his faithful friend. The same night, the night of the
greatest of Christian festivals, the queen was delivered of a
daughter. While Edwin was rendering thanks to his gods
for the birth of his first-born, the Bishop Paulinus began, on

his part, to thank the Lord Christ, assuring the king that it

was he who by his prayers to the true God had obtained

that the queen should bear her first child without mishap,
and almost without pain. The king, less moved by the
mortal danger that he had just escaped than by the joy of
being a father without peril or hurt to his beloved Ethel-
burga, was charmed by the words of Paulinus, and promised
to renounce his idols for the service of Christ, if Christ granted
him life and victory in the war which he was about to wage
against the king who had tried to procure his assassination.
As a pledge of his good faith he gave the new-born child to
the bishop, that he might consecrate her to Christ. This
first child of the king, the first native Christian of the Nor-
tlmmbrian nation, was baptized on Whitsunday along with
seven persons of the royal household. She was named Ean-
fieda, and was destined, like most of the Anglo-Saxon prin-
cesses, to exercise an influence over the destiny of her country.
Edwin came back victorious from his struggle with the
guilty king. On his return to Northumbria, though since
giving his promise he had ceased to worship idols, he would
not at once, and \vithout further reflection, receive the sacra-
ments of the Christian faith. But he made Paulinus give
him more fully the reasons of his belief. He frequently con-
ferred with the wisest and best-instructed of his nobles upon
the part which they would counsel him to take. Finally,

being by nature a man sagacious and reflective, he passed

long hours in soUtude, his lips indeed closed, but discussing

i^ .
_ »Ji
*-

238 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. m

many things in the depth of his heart, and examining, with-

out intermission, which rehgion he ought to prefer.
Meanwhile, Pauhnus saw time passing away without the
Word of God which he preached being Hstened to, and with-
out Edwin being able to bow the pride of his intelligence
before the divine humihty of the Cross. Being informed of
the prophecy, and the promise wliich had put an end to the
exile of the king, he believed that the moment for recalHng
tliem to him had come. One day, when Edwin was seated
by himself, meditating in the secret of his own heart upon
the religion which he ought to follow, the bishop entered
suddenly, and placed liis right hand on his head, as the un-
known had done in the vision, asking him if he recognized
that sign. The king, trembling, would have thrown himself
at the feet of Paulinus ; but he raised him up, and said gently,
"Thou art now delivered, by God's goodness, from the
enemies that thou fearedst. He has given thee the kingdom
which thou desiredst. Remember to accomplish thy third
promise, which binds thee to receive the faith and to keep
its commandments. It is thus only that, after being enriched
with the divine favour here, tliou wilt be aljle to enter with
God into the fellowship of the eternal kingdom."
"Yes," answered Edwin, at length, " I feel it; I ought to
be, and I will be, a Christian." But, always true to his cha-
racteristic moderation, he stipulated only for himself. He
said that he would confer with his great nobles, his friends,

and his councillors, in order that, if they decided to believe

as he did, they should all together be consecrated to Christ in
the fountain of life.

Paulinus having expressed his approval of this proposal,

the Northumbrian parliament was assembled near to a sanc-
tuary of the national worship, already celebrated in the time
of the Romans and Britons, at Godmundham, hard by the
gates of York. Each member of this great national council

*-
 ;

^ _ ^

Oct. lo]
S. Paulimis. 239

was, in his turn, asked his opinion of the doctrine and wor-
ship. The first wlio answered was the high priest of the

idols, by name Co'ifi, a singular and somewhat cynical per-

sonage. " My opinion," said he, " is most certainly that the

religionwhich we have hitherto followed is worth nothing

and this is my reason: Not one of thy subjects has served
our gods with more zeal than I have, and notwithstanding,
there are many of thy people who have received from thee
and dignities. But if our gods were not good
far greater gifts

for nothing, they would have done something for me who

have served them so well. If then, after ripe examination,

thou hast found this new religion which is preached to us
more efficacious, let us hasten to adopt it."

One of the great chiefs held different language, in which

is revealed to us that religious elevation and poetic melan-
choly wherewith the minds of these Germanic heathens were
often imbued. " Thou rememberest, perhaps," said he to
the king, " what sometimes happens in the winter evenings,
whilst thou art at supper witli thine ealdormen and thanes :

while the good fire burns within, and it rains and snows, and
the wind howls without, a sjDarrow enters at the one door
and flies out quickly at the other. During that rapid passage
it is sheltered from the rain and cold but after that brief and
;

pleasant moment it disappears, and from winter returns to

winter again. Such seems to me to be the life of man, and

his career but a brief moment between that which goes before
and that which follows after, and of which we know nothing.

If then the new doctrine can teach us something certain, it

deserves to be followed."
After much discourse of the same tendency, for the as-

sembly seems to have been unanimous, the high priest Coifi

spoke again with a loftier inspiration than that of his first

words. He expressed the desire to hear Paulinus speak of

the God whose envoy he professed to be. The bishop, with

4, _ -»j<
>it-

240 Lives of the Saints. foct. 10.

permission of the king, addressed the assembly. When he

had finished, the high priest cried, " For a long time I have
understood the nothingness of all that we worshipped, for

the more I endeavoured to search for truth in it the less I

found it ; but now I declare, without reserve, that in this
preaching I see the shining of the truth which gives light
and salvation and eternal blessedness. I vote then that we
give up at once to fire and to the curse the altars which we
have so uselessly consecrated." The king immediately made
a public declaration that he adhered to the gospel preached by
Paulinus — that he renounced idolatry and adopted the faith

of Christ. "But who," asked the king, "will be the first to over-

throw the altars of the ancient gods, and to profane their

sacred precincts?" "I," repHed the high priest; whereupon
he prayed the king to give him arms and a stallion, that he
might the more thoroughly violate the rule of his order,
Avhich forbade him to carry arms and to mount aught but a
mare. Mounted on the king's steed, girt with a sword, and
lance in hand, he galloped towards the idols, and in the
sight of all the people, who believed him to be beside him-
self, he dashed his lance into the interior of their temple.
The profaning steel buried itself in the wall ; to the surprise
of the spectators, the gods were silent and the sacrilege re-
mained unpunished. Then the people, at the command of

the high priest, proceeded to overthrow and burn the temple.

These things occurred in the eleventh year of Edwin's
reign. The whole Northumbrian nobility and a large part
of the people followed the example of the king, who was
baptized with much solemnity on Easter-day (627) by
PauHnus at York, in a wooden church, built in haste while
the catechumens were prepared for baptism. Immediately
afterwards he built around this improvised sanctuary a large
church in stone, which he had not time to finish, but which
has since become the splendid minster of York, and the

*-
>J< ^
Oct. lo.]
S. PmUimts. 241

metropolitan church of the north of England. The town of

York had been already celebrated in the time of the Ro-
mans. The Emperors Severus and Constantius Chlorus
had died there. The Northumbrians had made it their
capital, and Edwin there placed the seat of the episcopate,

filled by his teacher PauUnus.

The king and the bishop laboured together for six years
for the conversion of the Northumbrian people, and even of
the English population of the neighbouring regions. The
chiefs of the nobility and the principal servants of the king
were the first to receive baptism, together with the sons of
Edwin's first marriage. The example of a king was, however,
farfrom being enough, among the Anglo-Saxons, to deter-
mine the conversion of a whole people; and the first Christian
king and the first bishop of Northumbria did not think of
employing undue constraint. Doubtless it required more
than one effort on overcome the roughness, the
their part to

ignorance, the indifference of the heathen Saxons. But they

had, at the same time, much encouragement, for the fervour
of the people and their anxiety for baptism were often
wonderful. Paulinus having gone with the king and queen,
who several times accompanied him on his missions, to a
royal villa far to the north, they remained there, all three, for

thirty-six days together, and during the whole of that time

the bishop did nothing else from morning till night than
catechize the crowds that gathered from all the villages
around, and afterwards baptize them in the river which
flowed close by. At the opposite extremity of the country,
to the south, the name of Jordan is still given to a
portion of the course of the river Derwent, near the old
Roman ford of Malton, in memory of the numerous
subjects of Edwin that were there baptized by the
Roman missionary. Everywhere he baptized in the rivers

or streams, for there was no time to build churches. How-

VOL. XI. 16
* i
 242 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 10.

ever, he built near Edwin's principal palace a stone church,

whose calcined ruins were still visible after the Reformation,
as well as a large cross with this inscription : Paidinus hie
prcedicavit et celebravit.
Passing the frontiers of the Northumbrian kingdom,
Paulinus continued his evangelistic course among the
Angles settled to the south of the Humber, in the maritime
province of Lindsey. There also he baptized many people
in the Trent ; and long afterwards old men, who had in
their childhood received baptism at his hands, recalled with
reverent tenderness the venerable and awe-inspiring stranger,
whose lofty and stooping form, black hair, aquiline nose, and
emaciated, but imposing features, impressed themselves on
every beholder, and proclaimed his southern origin. The
beautiful monastic church' of Southwell consecrates the
memory of the scene of one of those multitudinous baptisms,
and it is to the mission of Bishop Paulinus on this side the

Humber that we trace the foundation of the magnificent

cathedral of Lincoln.
It was in the stone church built by Paulinus at Lincoln,
after the conversion of the chief Saxon of that town, with all

his house, that the metropolitan bishop of York had to pro-

ceed to the consecration of the fourth successor of Augustine
in the metropolitan see of Canterbury. Honorius was, like
Paulinus, a monk of Mount Coelius at Rome, and one of the
first companions of S. Augustine in his mission to England.
He was a disciple of S. Gregory, and had learned from the
great pontiff the art of music, and it was he who led the
choir of monks on the occasion of the first entrance of the
missionaries, thirty years before, at Canterbury. The Pope
then reigning was also named Honorius, first of that name.
He sent the pallinm to each of the two metropolitans, and
ordained that when God should take to Himself one of the
two the other should appoint a successor, in order to avoid

^ ^
 *
—
Oct. lo.] •S. Paulinus. 243

the delay of a reference to Rome, so difficult by reason of

the great distance to be travelled by sea and land.
The Pope also \vrote to King Edwin to congratulate him
on his conversion and on the ardour and sincerity of his
faith, and to exhort him to read much in the works of
S. Gregory, whom he calls the Preacher of the English, and
whom he recommends the king to take for his perpetual in-
tercessor with Gcd. But when this letter reached England
Edwin was no more.
The six years which passed between his conversion and
his death may certainly be reckoned among the most glori-

ous and happy that it was ever given to any Anglo-Saxon

prince to know. He speedily raised Northumbria to the
head of the Heptarchy. On the south his ardent zeal for
the faith which he had embraced after such ripe reflection
extended its influence even to the populations which, with-
out being subjected to his direct authority, yet belonged to
the same race as his subjects. The East Angles, as we have
seen, had offered him their crown, and he had refused it. But
he used his influence over their young king, who owed to him
his elevation to the throne, to induce him to embrace the

Christian religion, with all his subjects. Edwin thus paid the
ransom of the generous pity that the royalty of East Anglia
had lavished on his youth and his exile.
On the north he extended and consolidated the Anglo-
Saxon dominion as far as the isthmus which separated
Caledonia from Britain; and he has left an ineffaceable
record of his reign in the name of the fortress built upon the
rock which commanded the entrance of the Forth, and which
still lifts its sombre and Alpine front —
true Acropolis of the
—
barbarous north from the midst of the great and picturesque
city of P!^dinburgh {^Edwiij's bin-gJi).
On the west he continued, with less ferocity than Ethelfrid,
but with no less valour and success, the contest with the

* —— ^
 ;

^ _
^
244 Lives of the Saints. [Od. 10.

Britons of Wales. He pursued them even into the islands

of the channel which separates Great Britain from Ireland
and took possession of the Isle of Man, and another isle,
which had been the last refuge of the Druids from the Roman
dominion, and which, after its conquest by Edwin, took the
name of the victorious race, Anglesey.
Within his own kingdom he secured a peace and security
so unknown both before and after his reign that it passed into
a proverb. was said that in the time of Edwin a woman
It

with her new-born child might traverse England from the

Irisli Channel to the North Sea without meeting any one who

would do her the least wrong. It is pleasant to trace his

kindly and minute care of the well-being of his subjects in
such a particular as that of the copper cups which he had
suspended beside the fountains on the highways, that the
passers-by might drink at their ease, and which no one
attempted to steal, whether from fear or from love of the
king. Neither did any one ever reproach him for the un-
wonted pomp which distinguished his train, not only when
he Avent out to war, but when he rode peacefully through
his towns and provinces, on which occasions the lance,
surmounted with a large tuft of feathers, which the Saxons
had borrowed from the Roman legions, and which they had
made the sacred standard of the Bretwalda, and the ensign
of the supreme sovereignty in their confederation, was always
carried before him in the midst of his military banners.
But all this grandeur and prosperity were about to be en-
gulfed in a sudden and great calamity.
There were other Angles than those who, in Northumbria
and East Anglia, were already subdued and humanized by
the influence of Christianity : there remained the Angles of
Mercia, the great central region stretching from the Humber
to the Thames. The kingdom of Mercia was the last state
organized out of the Anglo-Saxon conquest. It had been

^ _ •

^
 Oct. lo.] '^- Pciulinus. 245

founded by that portion of the invaders who, finding all the

eastern and southern shores of the island already occupied,
were compelled to advance into the interior. It became the
centre of the Pagan and occasional assaults
resistance to,
upon, the Christian Propaganda, which was henceforth to
have its head-quarters in Northumbria. The Pagans oi
Mercia found a formidal)le leader in the person of Penda,
who was himself of royal extraction, or, as was then believed,
of the blood of Odin, and had reigned for twenty-two years,
but who was inflamed by all the passions of a barbarian, and,
above all, devoured with jealousy of the fortunes of Edwin
and of the power of the Northumbrians. Since Edwin's
conversion these wild instincts were intensified by fanaticism.
Penda and the Mercians remained faithful to the worship oi
Odin, whose descendants all the Saxon kings believed them-
selves to be.
Edwin and the Northumbrians were, therefore, in their eyes,
no better than traitors and apostates. But, more surprising
still, the original inhabitants of the island — the Christian
Britons, who were more numerous in Mercia than in any
other Anglo-Saxon kingdom — shared and excited the hatred
of the Pagan Saxons against the converts of the same race.

The Welsh Britons, who maintained their independence, but

who for more than a century liad been constantly menaced,
defeated, and humiUated by Ida, Ethelfrid, and Edwin, pro-
fessed and nourished their antipathy Avith even greater
bitterness. Their chief, Ceadwalla or Cadwallon, the last
hero of the Celtic race in Britain, at first overcome by Edwin,

and forced to seek refuge in Ireland and in Armorica, had

returned thence with rage redoubled, and with auxiliaries
from the other Celtic races, to recommence the struggle
against the Northumbrians. He succeeded in forming an
alliance with Penda against the common enemy. Under
these two chiefs an immense army, in which the British

,j, >J<
t^. —_ ^
246 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 10.

Christians of Wales jostled the Pagans of Mercia, invaded

Northumbria. Edwin awaited them at Hatfield, on the
southern frontier of his kingdom. He was there disastrously
defeated, and perished gloriously, sword in hand, scarce
forty-eight years of age, dying a death which entitled him to
be ranked amongst the martyrs. His eldest son fell with
him ; the younger, taken prisoner by Penda, who swore to
preserve his life, was infamously murdered. Northumbria
was ravaged with fire and sword, and its recent Christianity
completely obliterated.
It is not known why Northumbria, after the death oi

Edwin and his son, was not subjugated, and shared among
the conquerors; but it remained divided, enslaved, and
was plunged once more into Paganism. Deira fell to Osric.
cousin-german of Edwin Bernicia to Eanfrid, one of the
;

sons of Ethelfrid, who had returned from his exile in Scot-

land. —
Both had received baptism the one with his cousin
at York, the other at the hands of the Celtic monks of lona.
But a Pagan reaction was the inevitable consequence of the
overthrow of the first Christian king of Northumbria. The
two princes yielded and renounced their
to that reaction,
baptism, but without gaining anything thereby. The King of
Deira was killed in battle with the Britons and the King of ;

Bernicia was murdered at an interview which he had sought

with the savage Cadwallon.
Bishop Pauhnus did not consider himself called upon to
remain a witness of such horrors. His one thought was to
place in safety thewidow of King Edwin, that gentle Ethel-
burga who had been confided to him by her brother for a
different destiny. He brought her back by sea to her
brother's kingdom, with the daughter and the two youngest
sons whom she had borne to Edwin. Even beside her
brother, the King of Kent, she was afraid to keep them in
England; and, wishing to devote her own mdowhood to

J<~ -*
^___ __ ^
Oct. lo.] ^^ Tancha. 247

God, she entrusted them to the King of the Franks, Dago-

bert, her cousin, at whose court they died at an early age.

As to Paulinus, who had left in charge of his church at York

only a brave Italian deacon, he found the episcopal see of
Rochester vacant, in consequence of the death of the Roman
monk, who was the and who, sent by the
titular bishop,

primate to the Pope, had just been drowned in the Mediter-

ranean. Paulinus was invested with this bishopric by the
king and by the Archbishop Honorius, whom he had himself
consecrated at Lincoln. And there he died, far from his
native land, after having laboured during forty-three years for
the conversion of the English.

S. TANCHA, V.M.

(date unknown.)

[Gallican Martyrology. Authority :— The Lections of the Troyes

Breviary.]

Tancha was the daughter of a farmer at S. Ouen, near

Arcis, in the diocese of Troyes. Her godfather was a kins-
man living at Arcis. When Tancha was aged sixteen, her

father and mother were invited to attend the dedication feast

at Arcis by their kinsman. They went thither, leaving Tancha
in charge of the house but her godfather was disappointed
;

at the girl not being present at the merrymaking and dancing,

and sent a servant to fetch her, with her parents' consent.
Neither the servant nor the girl were ever seen alive again.
The man disappeared, and nothing was ever known of what
had become of him; but the body of the girl, murdered, with
face bruised, and throat cut, was found some days after,
hidden in a thicket of thorns. Popular imagination con-
cluded that she had died rather than lose her honour, when

k -^
* *
248 Lives of tJie Saints. [Oct. 10.

assaulted by the serving-man. The lections of the Troyes

Breviary give an animated and interesting conversation which
passed between the murderer and his victim but as no one ;

was present to overhear it, and the murderer was never caught,
it is purely the creation of the author of the life inserted in
the Breviary. She is said also to have got up after sl^e was
killed, and walked some way with her head in her hands.

Various other traditional embellishments adorn the story.

That Tancha was murdered by the man, either because she
resisted him or to prevent her from accusing him for having
wronged her, is probable enough.
The head of the saint would have been lost in 1793, had
it not been saved by Tanche Labreuveux, of Lhuitre, sister

of the sacristan, from the violence of the revolutionary mob.

In 1840, she restored it to the ecclesiastical authorities. On
Oct. 10, 1846, a commemorative cross was erected on the
scene of the murder. The skull is in the church at Lhuitre.

S. JOHN OF BRIDLINGTON, C.

(yi.D. 1379.)

[Wilson, in his Anglican Mavtyrology of i6oS. Butler, and the Acta

Sanctorum. Authority : —A life by Hugh the Canon.]

This saint was born at Thwang, near Bridlington, and

from earliest childhood lived to God. At the age of twelve
he took a vow of chastity, and on reaching an age of discre-
tion entered the house of Augustinian canons at Bridhngton.
His life is absolutely devoid of a single incident of interest.
The only legend of any beauty in it is an importation. It is
the old story of carr)dng loaves to the poor, and on being
detected the loaves are found to be transformed. In most
cases they become roses ; in the story of S. Nothburga they

^ .
Vji
 -^

Oct. lo.] '^- -Francis Borgia. 249

are turned into chips of wood, in the lap of John of Brid-

lington they became stones. S. John studied at Oxford,and
passed through the successive offices of cellarer, precentor,
and prior of his monastery, and closed a life without interest
in 1379.

S. FRANCIS BORGIA, C.

(a.d. 1572.)

[Roman Martyrology. Beatified by Urban VIII. in 1624, and

canonized in 1716 by Clement IX., and his festival fixed for Oct. ic
by Innocent XI. in 1683. Authority —
His life, written by Ribaden-
:

eira, who was his confessor during nine years. Another life by Vasquez,
also at one time the saint's confessor, used by Verjus in his "Vie dc
S. Francois Borgia."]

AlexanderVI,, the pope of infamous memory, was mar-

became pope. He was a Borgia, and his wife
ried before he
was Julia Famese. Among other children he had John
Borgia, duke of Gandia. John Borgia married Joanna of
Aragon, daughter of Alphonso, natural son of Ferdinand V.
of Aragon. John Borgia, third duke of Gandia, was the
father of S. Francis, the subject of this notice. The saint
was bom in 15 10, at Gandia, the seat of the family, in
Valencia. He was brought up in all the gravity and state
of a Spanish noble's house.
In 1520 the young Francis ran a risk of losing his life.

A seditious monk, having by his sermons excited the citizens

of Valencia to take up arms and punish certain criminals in
a tumultuary manner, the people, pleased with this exercise
of power, and with the discovery of their own importance,
not only refused to lay down their arms, but formed them-
selves into troops and companies, that they might be re-
gularly trained to martial exercises. To obtain security
against the oppression of the grandees was the motive of

-^
^
250 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 10.

this association, and proved a powerful bond of union for ;

as the aristocratic privileges and independence were more

complete in Valencia than in any other of the Spanish
kingdoms, the nobles, being scarcely accountable for their
conduct to any superior, treated the people, not merely as
vassals, but as slaves. They were alarmed, however, at the
progress of this unexpected insurrection, but as they could
not repress it without having recourse to arms, it became
necessary to appeal to the emperor, and ask his permission
to attack the insurgents. At the same time the people made
choice of deputies to represent their grievances, and to im-
plore the protection of their sovereign. Happily for the
latter, they arrived at court when Charles V. was exaspe-
rated to a high degree against the nobihty. Piqued at their
resistance to his will in a matter on which he had set his
heart, and moved by the justice of the complaints of the
delegates of the people, he decided in favour of the latter,
and rashly authorized them to continue in arms. The de-
puties returned in triumph, and were received by their fellow-
citizens as the deliverers of their country. The insolence of
the multitude increased with their success : they rose against
the nobles, drove them from the city, and entrusted the
government of it to magistrates of their own election. This
was speedily followed by the sacking of the castles and
palaces of the grandees throughout Valencia, and in their
rage against those who had oppressed them, they perpetrated
great cruelties. The amied mob surrounded the mansion of
the Duke of Gandia, and tore it down with the greatest
;

difficulty, and in disguise, the duke escaped with

his mother
and daughters. The young Francis was mounted on a horse,
and galloped without drawing rein to Diani, where his father
carried him by boat, for greater security, to a strong tower
built on a rock afterwards, the country being still disturbed,
;

the duke sent him to Saragossa, to his uncle, the Archbishop

*-
^ J*

Oct. lo] S. Francis Borgia. 251

Don John of Aragon. The archbishop gave him a house and

retinue suitable to his rank, and provided him with masters
in grammar, music, and fencing.
From Saragossa, Francis was sent to Baeza in Ciranada,
to his great grandmother, Donna Maria de Luna, wife of
Don Henriquez, uncle and master of the household to Ferdi-
nand, Regent of Castile, and Grand Commander of Leon.
Thence he was sent to Tordesillas, to be taken into the
service of the Infanta Catharine, sister of Charles V., who
was shortly to be married to John IIL, King of Portugal.
The marriage took place in 1525, but Francis did not
accompany her to Portugal, as his father had greater views
for his son in Spain. He therefore recalledhim, and
sent him back to the Archbishop of Saragossa, to have his
education completed. Francis was then aged fifteen, and
after he had finished rhetoric he studied philosophy for two
years.
In 1528 he was removed to the court of Charles V., where
he made himself a general favourite by his courtesy of manner
and cordiality of disposition. At the age of nineteen he was
married to Eleanor de Castro, a Portuguese lady of high rank
and considerable personal attractions. On the occasion of
his marriage, the emperor created him Marquis of Lombay.
By her Francis became the father of eight children ; the eldest,
Charles Borgia, inherited his father's title. In 1536 Francis
Borgia followed Charles V. in his ill-advised and vainglorious
expedition into Provence.
S. Francis saw the emperor, his master, harassed by Mont-
morency, his troops weakened by disease, and dispirited by
disaster, the more intolerable because wholly unexpected.
The emperor, after spending two inglorious months in Pro-
vence, without having performed anything suitable to his vast
preparations, after having lost half his troops by disease or
famine, was forced to retire. The retreat became a rout.

* ^
252 Lives of the Saints, [Oct. 10.

He was pursued by tlie French troops, assisted by crowds of

peasants eager to be avenged on those who had brought de-

solation on their country,and Charles could only bring a
shattered remnant of his magnificent army back within the
frontiers of Milan. Unable to bear exposure to the scorn of
the Itahans after such a sad reverse of fortune, he embarked
with Francis and other of his immediate attendants for
Spain.
The saint accompanied Charles V. on another equally dis-
astrous expedition, that against Algiers, and saw the destruc-
tion of another great army under circumstances scarcely less
ignominious. These two expeditions, with their fatal termi-
nations, may haveled, and probably did powerfully lead, to

the final change in the life of Francis Borgia.

In 1539 a somewhat dramatic event occurred, which
marked tlie conversion of the saint. He had been much in
the company of the Empress Isabella, and had contracted
for her a warm devotion. Charles V. was at Toledo, striving
to wring a grant of money out of the reluctant Cortes of
Castile, when Isabella died. The Marquis and Marchioness
of Loml:)ay were commissioned by the emperor to attend her
corpse to Elvira, where she was to be buried. When the
funeral convoy arrived at Elvira, and the marquis delivered
the corpse into the hands of the magistrates, it was required
that he should take oath that the body he delivered over was
that of Isabella of Portugal. The leaden coffin lid was re-
moved, that he might look on the face of the dead, and so
take the required oath. But decomposition liad made such
fearful ravages, that every trace of the wonderful beauty of
the late queen was gone, and all that remained of her was a
festering mass of corruption. Francis took the required oath,
not because he could recognise the body, but because of the
care he had taken with it, which made it certain that nobody
could have changed it on the road.
 -*

Oct. lo.] S. Francis Borgia. 253

The impression made on by this spectacle he was

his soul
never able to shake determined him to quit
off. It finally

the world so soon as God should remove the hindrances

which now prevented him from taking such a step.
On the return of Francis to Toledo the emperor made
him viceroy of Catalonia, and created him knight and com-
mander of the order of S. lago. Francis entered on the
discharge of his new duties with singular zeal. He made a
clean sweep of the brigands who infested the province,
made travelling dangerous, and obstructed commerce. The
judges were venal. He kept a sharp watch upon them, and
insisted on and
their discharging their duties with expedition
impartiality. He
up schools and hospitals, and was a
set

model of piety to the whole province. He had formerly

been accustomed to communicate monthly, he now commu-
nicated weekly.
Whilst Francis Borgia was governor of Catalonia, F.
Aretino Aroaz, a member of the Jesuit Order, only recently
founded, came to preach in Barcelona. By this means
Francis became acquainted with the new institute, and was
much struck with its character, and with what he heard ol

the life of its founder. He even wrote to S. Ignatius and

received from him letters in reply.
Whilst Francis was viceroy of Catalonia, his father died,
and he inherited the family estates and titles. Shortly after,
he obtained leave to resign his charge, and he then repaired
to court, and was appointed master of the household of the
Infanta Maria of Portugal, then on the point of being
married to Philip, the son of the emperor. The death of
the princess before the projected marriage took place, set
the saint at liberty to follow his own inclination, and he
retired to Gandia, in 1543, and built in it a Jesuit college
and a Dominican convent.
His wife shortly after fell ill ; Francis began to pray for

-*
 254 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 10.

her recovery, but his internal consciousness assuring him

that he could not carry out his plan of renouncing the world,
if she were to recover, he discontinued his supplications for
her restoration, and she died March 27th, 1546.
A few days later, F. Pierre Lefevre arrived at Gandia, to
lay the first stone of a college of Jesuits which the duke
designed to erect in princely style. Francis went through
the spiritual exercises of S. Ignatius with him with such
benefit that he wrote to the Pope to request him to pro-
nounce his apostolic approval of them. Another fruit of

the course was that Francis Borgia definitely resolved to join

the Society of Jesus. He wrote to S. Ignatius on this sub-
ject, but the great founder in his reply advised the duke to
defer the execution of his design till his children were placed
in such a position in life as no longer to need his parental

care. This advice was so reasonable that Francis was

obliged to submit. Ignatius gave him four years for attend-
ing to his children, but Francis Avas only required to wait
during three, as his family was settled by marriage or other-
wise within that time.
In the year of the jubilee of 1550, Francis Borgia started
for Rome, accompanied by his second son, John, and thirty
servants. He
was received with great honour; several
ambassadors and cardinals came to meet him as he
entered the Eternal City, with their gorgeous carriages and
liveries. The Pope offered him rooms in his palace, but
Francis Borgia decHned them that he might visit the Jesuit
College, and cast himself at the feet of S. Ignatius. It was

supposed that Francis Borgia would be created cardinal, on

this occasion, as he had two brothers cardinals ; but he left

Rome almost immediately, and returned to Spain. He did

not, however, go back to Gandia, but retired to Ognate in
Guipuscoa, whence he wrote to the emperor, requesting
leave to resign his duchy in favour of his eldest son ; he

* ^
 -*

oct.io.] S. Francis Borgia. 255

received the consent of Charles V., and the act of resigna-

tion was made by him Ognate before a notary. He then
at
had his hair cut, put off his ducal robes, and put on the
Jesuit's habit. This took place in 155 1. After a devout prepa-
ration he was ordained priest, in the same year, and said his
first mass privately in the castle of Loyola. On the morrow,
to satisfy the devotion of the people, he said another
solemnly in the town of Vergara. The crowd was so great
that there was not room and an
to contain it in the church,
altarhad to be erected in a field such numbers came to ;

communicate at his hand that he was not able to put off his
vestments till three o'clock in the afternoon.
The inhabitants of Ognate gave him a hermitage in the
neighbourhood, and there he constructed wooden cells foi
himself and his companions.
Multitudes came to see the Duke of Gandia transformed
into a hermit, and his solitude was broken in upon by the
unfailing streams of visitors. S. Ignatius hearing of this,

ordered him to preach in Portugal. He therefore departed

on this mission, which was attended witli considerable
results.

From Portugal he returned to Spain, and his exertions at

Valladolid and elsewhere gained many disciples to the new
Order. S. Ignatius accordingly made him Vicar General for
Spain.
S. Ignatius died in 1556, and F. Laynez was elected
second General of the society, and nine years after, on the
death of Laynez, S. Francis was chosen his successor, and
removed to Rome as the head-quarters of the society. In
1570, the year before the battle of Lepanto, he was sent by
Pope Pius v., with his nephew Cardinal Alexandrini, on an
embassy into France, Spain, and Portugal, to engage the
Christian princes to send succours for the defence of
Christendom against the Mahomedans. S. Francis was at

-^
1^- -^

256 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 10.

that time very infirm, the journey and anxieties were too
much for him, and he fell so ill at Ferrara, after having
accomplished the legation, that his cousin, the Duke of
Ferrara, sent him back to Rome in a litter. He died on
October ist, 1572, at the age of sixty-two.

*-
 7

— *
Oct. II. SS. Zenais and PJdlonilla. 257

October 11.

SS. Zenais and Philonilla, at Tarsus in Cilicia; ist cent.

SS. NiCASius, Quirinus, and Scubiculus, mm. at Ecos; a.d. 286.
SS. Tarachus, Probus, .^nd Andronicus, MM. at Anazarbus ui
Cilicia; a.d. 304.
S. Nect.^rius, Pair, of Constant inofile ; a.d. 391.
S. Germanus, B. of Besatigon ; circ. a.d. 407.
S. SisiNNius, Pair, of Constantinople ; a.d. 427.
S. Firminus, B. of Uzes in France; a.d. 453.
S. Kenny, Ab. of Kilkenny ; a.d. 599.
S. Ethelburga, V. Aiss. of Barking in Essex; qth cent.
S. Paldo, Ab. ofS. Vi?icent at Bencvento ; a.d. 720.
S. Julia, K. Abss. ofPavilly ijt Nonnandy ; ^thcent.
S. Win.\rd, C. at Latigres ; Zth cent.
S. GuMMAR, C. at Lyre in Brabant; Zth cent.
S. Bruno, Abp. of Cologtte ; a.d. 965.

SS. ZENAIS AND PHILONILLA.

(iST CENTURY.)

[Greek Menology and Mensea, Modem Roman Martyrology, inserted

by Baronius. Authority The :
— late Greek Acts and the notices in the
Menology, &c.]

ENAIS and Philonilla are said to have been

and kinswomen of
natives of Tarsus in Cilicia,
S. Paul the Apostle. They abandoned their
native town and devoted themselves to medical
science, making their skill in curing the maladies of the body
a vehicle for instructing the souls of their patients. They
inhabited a cave in a forest dedicated to Demeter, near
Tarsus, along with three pious men named Pappas, Pateras,
and Philoc)rris. When, however, persecution was feared,
the two women sent their three male companions back to
Tarsus, as they were less likely to attract attention in the
midst of a throng than in sohtude. They parted with pro-
VOL. XL 1
-*
258 Lives of tJie Saints. [Oct. u.

fusion of tears, and Zenais was so heart-broken that she

prayed God to remove her from this wicked world. No
sooner had she risen from her devotion than she trod on a
thorn, and as she was sitting down to pull it out of her foot,
she died. Philonilla, her sister, remained in the cave till

her death. What became of the three men is not stated.

The Greek Menologies do not designate the damsels as
Virgins, and therefore Baronius did not give them this title
in tlie Roman Martyrology.

SS. NICASIUS, QUIRINUS, AND SCUBICULUS, MM.

(about a.d. 2S6.)

[Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Authority : — The purely fabu-

lous Acts.]

The legend of S. Nicasius — it is nothing more — relates

thathe was an Athenian, converted by S. Paul, and that he
came to Gaul with S. Dionysius the Areopagite. This is all
nonsense: the invention of those who wished to establish an
apostolic origin for the Church of Gaul. According to the
same authority he received his mission from Pope Clement I.
He accompanied S. Denys to Paris, and there left him, that
he might push further north along the banks of the Seine.
At Vaux, the saint, who was accompanied by Quirinus and
Scubiculus, found the country ravaged by a dragon. Quirinus
put the stole of vS. Nicasius round him, and rendered him
harmless. At Roche-Guyon the apostles converted the lady
Pientia, who inhabited the castle and having opened the
;

eyes of a blind priest of idols, called Clairus, baptized him

also.

Nicasius pushed on to Rouen, and made that the head-

 ;

f^

Oct. II.] SS. Nicasius and Others. 259

quarters of his mission. He built a church there, and

S. Denys came from Paris to consecrate it.

The procurator Fescennius Sisinnius had Nicasius and

his companions arrested and executed at Ecos, between La
Roche-Guyon and Les Andelys, near the river Epte. The
bodies lay very still till the executioners had departed, and
night had fallen, when they cautiously got up, looked about
with the stumps of their necks, and seeing the coast clear,
picked up their heads, and stole off with them under their
arms to the river side. They waded across to an islet, now
called Gasny, where they thought they could be comfortable,
and then put down their heads, and lay their bodies at length
upon the grass. Lady Pientia, who had been looking on
with not unreasonable surprise, followed, buried the saints,
and built a chapel over them. The father of Pientia by this
means became aware that his daughter was a Christian. He
therefore cut off her head, and with it also that of the old
priest Clairus. They were buried beside S. Nicasius.
There probably never was a S. Nicasius, bishop of Rouen
but the reminiscence of early veneration for Nicasius, bishop
of Rheims, and martyr under the Vandals in the 5th century,
became transformed in course of time into the belief that
Nicasius had suffered in the diocese of Rouen, and was the
first bishop of that see. Some of the Hsts of the bishops of
Rouen even include this Nicasius, and reckon him as eleventh
bishop.
Relics at Meulan, in the church of S. Nicolas, portions at
Evreux, others at Ecos.

'^
* .
Ij,

260 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. n.

SS. TARACHUS, PROBUS, AND ANDRONICUS, MM.

(a.d. 304.)

[Roman and all the classical Latin Martyrologies. By the Greeks on

Oct. 12. Authority: — The very precious Acts : these are composed of
the proconsular acts, written by the public notary, a copy of which
was obtained from the Spiculator Sebastus by those who completed the
account for the sum of 200 denarii. The rest is written by Marcius,
Felix, and Vero, three eye-witnesses of the passion of the Saints. The
whole account was sent as a letter to the Church of Iconium by that
in Anazarbus.]

Tarachus was a Roman by extraction, though bom in

Isauria; he had served had procured his
in the army, but
discharge, for fear of being compelled to do something that
was contrary to the duty of a Christian he was at that time
;

sixty-five years old. Probus, a native of Pamphilia, had re-

signed a considerable fortune, that he might be more at

liberty to serve Christ. Andronicus was a young nobleman,
of one of the principal families of the city of Ephesus. They
were apprehended at Pompeiopolis in and presented
Cilicia,

to Numerianus Maximus, governor of the province, upon his

arrival in that city, and by his order were conducted to Tar-

sus, the metropolis, to wait his return. Maximus having

arrived there, and seated himself on his tribunal, Demetrius,
the centurion, brought them before him, saying, they were the
persons who had been presented to him at Pompeiopolis, for
professing the impious religion of the Christians, and dis-

obeying the command Maximus addressed

of the emperors.
himself first to Tarachus, observing that he began with him
because he was in years, and then asked his name.
Tarachus replied " I am a Christian."
:

Maximus. " Speak not of thy impiety, but tell me thy

name."

^
 "

Oct. H.] •S''5'. Tarachus and Others. 261

Tarachus. " I am a Christian."

Maxinms. " Strike him upon the mouth, and bid him not
answer one thing for another."
Tarachus, after receiving a buffet on his jaws, said: " I
tell you ray true name. you would know that which my
If
parents gave me, it is Tarachus; when I bore arms I went by
the name of Victor."
Maxinms. " What is thy profession, and of what country
art thou ?"
Tarachus. " I am Roman family, and was born at
of a
Claudiopolis, in Isauria. am by profession a soldier, but
I

quitted the service upon the account of my religion."

Maximus. " Thy impiety rendered thee unworthy to bear
"
arms ; but how didst thou procure thy discharge ?
Tarachus. " I asked it of my captain, Publio, and he gave
it me."
Maximus. " In consideration of thy grey hairs I will
procure thee the favour and friendship of the emperors, if

thou wilt obey their orders. Draw near, therefore, and

sacrifice to the gods, as the emperors themselves do all the
world over."
Tarachus. " They are deceived by the devil in so doing."
Maximus. " Break his jaws for saying the emperors are
deceived."
Tarachus. " I repeat it, as men, they are deluded."
Maximus. " Sacrifice to our gods, and renounce thy
folly."

Tarachus. " I cannot renounce the law of God."

Maximus. " Is there any law, wretch, but that which we
obey?"
Tarachus. " There is, and you transgress it by adoring
stocks and stones, the works of men's hands."
Maximus. " Strike him on the face, saying, ' Abandon thy
folly.'

.j, _
 ;

<^-

262 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.

Tarachus. "What you call folly is the salvation of my

soul, and I will never leave it."
Maximus. " But I will make thee leave it, and force thee
to be wise."
TaracJms. " Do with my body what you please, it is en-
tirely in your power."
Then Maximus said " Strip him and beat him with rods."
:

Tarachus, when beaten, said " You have now made me :

truly ^vise. Iam strengthened by your blows, and my con-

fidence in God and in Jesus Christ is increased."
Afaxiinus. " Wretch, how canst thy deny a plurality of
gods, when, according to thy own confession, thou servest
two gods? Didst thou not give the name of God to a certain
"
person named Christ ?

Tarachus. " Right ; for this is the .Son of the living God ;

He is the hope of the Christians, and the author of salvation

to such as suffer for His sake."
Maximus. " Forbear this idle talk ; draw near, and sacri-

fice."

Tarachus. "I am no idle talker; I am sixty-five years

old ; thus have I been brought up, and I cannot forsake the
truth."
Demetrius the centurion said " Poor man, I pity thee :
;

be advised by me, and save thyself"

sacrifice,

Tarachus. "Away, thou minister of Satan, and keep thy

advice for thy own use."
Maximus. "Let him be loaded with large chains, and
carried back to prison. Bring forth the next in years."
Demetrius the centurion said :
" He is here, my lord."
" "
Maximus. What is thy name ?

Probus. " My chief and most honourable name is Christian

but the name I go by in the world is Probus."
Maximus. " Of what country art thou, and of what
"
family ?

ij,
_ ijj
^_ _ ^
Oct. I,.]
•5"'5'. Ta7'achus and Others. 263

Probus. "'My father was of Thrace. I am a plebeian, born

at Sida in Pamphilia, and profess Christianity."
Maximus. "That will do thee no service. Be advised by
me, sacrifice to the gods, that thou mayest be honoured by
the emperors, and enjoy my friendship."
Probits. " I want nothing of that kind. Formerly I was
possessed of a considerable estate ; but I relinquished it to
serve tlie living God through Jesus Christ."
Maximus. " Take off his garments, gird him, lay him at
his full length, and lash him with ox-hide thongs."
Lemetrius the centurion said to him, whilst they were
beatng him " Spare thyself, my friend ; see how thy blood
:

runs n streams on the ground."

PrJjus. " Do what you will with my body; your torments
are sw^et to me."
MaMiniis. " Is this obstinate folly incurable ? What canst
"
thou hcpe for ?

Prodis. " I am wiser than you are, because I do not wor-

ship dev'ls."
Afaxinus. " Turn him, and strike him on the belly."
Probiu " Lord, assist thy servant."
Maxinus. " Ask him, at every stripe, where is his suc-
"
cour ?

Probiis. "He succours me, and will succour me; for I

pay so litle regard to your torments that I do not obey
you."
Maximis. " T^ook, wretch, upon thy mangled body : the
ground is covered with thy blood."
Probiis. '
The more my body suffers for Jesus Christ, the

more is my ioul refreshed."

Maxi?mis. "Put fetters on his hands and feet, with his
legs distended in the stocks to the fourth hole, and let no-
body approach to dress his wounds. Bring the third to the
bar."

*-
 "

264 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. n.

Demetrius the centurion said :

" Here he stands, my lord."
Maximiis. " name ? "
What is thy
Andronicus. " My true name is Christian, and the name
by which I am commonly known among men is Androni-
cus."
"
Maximiis. " What is your family ?

Atidronicus. " My father is one of the first rank in Ephi-

sus."
Maximus. " Adore the gods, and obey the emperors, vho
and masters."
are our fathers
Andronicus. " The devil is your father, whilst you dc his
works."
Maximus. *'
Youth makes you insolent ; I have tocnents
ready."
Andronicus. " I am prepared for whatever may haDpen."
Maximus. "Strip him naked, gird him, and stretch him on
the rack."
Demetrius the centurion said to the martyr :
" Obey, my
friend, before thy body is and mangled."
torn
Andronicus. "It is better for me to have my >ody tor-
mented than to lose my soul."
Maximus. " Sacrifice, before I put thee to the nost cruel
death."
Andronicus. " I have never sacrificed to demois from my
infancy, and I will not now begin."
Athanasius, the comicularius, or clerk to the aimy, said to
him : "I am old enough to be thy father, and therefore take
the liberty to advise thee to obey the governor."
Andronicus. " You give me admirable advice,indeed, — to
sacrifice to devils !

Maximus. " Wretch, art thou insensible D torments ?

Thou dost not yet know what it is to suffer fiie and razors.
When thou hast felt them, thou wilt, perhaps, give over thy
folly." :
 ^
Oct. II.] -S^-^- Tarachus and Others. 265

Andronicus. " This folly is expedient for us who hope in

Jesus Christ. Earthly wisdom leads to eternal death."
Maximus. " Wrench his limbs with the utmost violence."
Androtiiais. " I have done no evil ; yet you torment me
like a murderer. I contend for that worship which is due to
the true God."
Maxiuuis. " If thou hadst but the least sense of piety,
thou wouldst adore the gods whom the emperors so religiously
worship."
Andronicus. " It is not piety, but impiety, to abandon the
true God, and to adore brass and marble."
Maximus. " Execrable villain are then the emperors !

guilty of impieties ? Hoist him again, and gore his sides."

Andronicus. " I am in your hands ; do with my body what
you please."
Afaxifnus. " Lay salt upon his wounds, and rub his sides
with broken tiles."

Andronicus. " Your torments have refreshed my body."

Maximus. " I will cause thee to die gradually."

Andronicus. "Your menaces do not terrify me; my courage

is above all that your malice can invent."
Maximus. " Put a heavy chain about his neck, and another
upon his legs, and keep him in close prison."
Thus ended the first examination ; the second was held at
Mopsuestia.
Flavius Clemens Numerianus Maximus, governor of Cilicia,
sitting on his tribunal, said to Demetrius the centurion :

" Bring forth the impious wretches who follow the religion of
the Christians."
Demetrius said :
" Here they are, my lord."
Maximus said to Tarachus " Old age is respected in
:

many, on account of the good sense and prudence that gene-

rally attend it wherefore, if you have made a proper use
:

of the time allowed you for reflection, I presume your own

*
>J<-

266 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. n.

discretion has wrought in you a change of sentiments : as a

proof of which, it is required that you sacrifice to the gods,
which cannot fail to recommend you to the esteem of your
superiors."
Tarachiis. " I am a Christian, and I wish you and the
emperors would leave your blindness, and embrace the truth
which leads to life."

Maximus. " Break his jaws with a stone, and bid him leave
off his folly."

Tarachus. "This folly is true wisdom."

Maximus. "Now they have loosened all thy teeth, wretch,
take pity on thyself, come to the altar, and sacrifice to the

gods, to prevent severer treatment."

Taj'achiis. "Though you my body into a thousand
cut
pieces, you will not be able to shake my resolution, because
it is Christ who gives me strength to stand my ground."
Maximus. " Wretch, accursed by the gods I will find !

means to drive out thy folly. Bring in a pan of burning

coals, and hold his hands in the fire till they are con-
sumed."
Tarachus. " I fear not your temporal fire, which soon
passes ;dread eternal flames."
but I

Maximus. " See, thy hands are well baked ; they are con-
sumed by the fire. Is it not time for thee to grow wise ?

Sacrifice."

Tarachus. " If you have any other torments in store for

me, employ them ; I hope I shall be able to Avithstand all

your attacks."
Maximus. " Hang him by the feet, with his head over a
great smoke."
Tarachus. "After having proved an overmatch for your
fire, I am not afraid of your smoke."
Maxitfius. " Bring vinegar and salt, and force them up his
nostrils."

*-
 ;

-*

Oct. II.] '^^^ Tarachus and Others. 267

Tarachus. "Your vinegar is sweet to me, and your salt

insipid."
Maximus. " Put mustard into the vinegar, and thrust it

up his nose."
Tarachus. " Your ministers impose upon you ; they have
given me honey instead of mustard."
Maximus. " Enough for the present. I will make it my
business to invent fresh tortures to bring thee to thy senses
I will not be baffled."
Tarachus. " You will find me prepared for the attack."
Maximus. " Away with him to the dungeon. Bring in
another."
Demetrius the centurion said :
" My lord, here is Probus."
Maximus. " Well, Probus, hast thou considered the matter,
and art thou disposed to sacrifice to the gods, after the ex-
ample of the emperors ? "
Probus. " I appear here again with fresh vigour. The tor-

ments I have endured have hardened my body, and my soul

is proof against you can inflict. I have a living God in
all

heaven : Him and adore, and no other."

I serve
Maximus. " What, villain ? are not ours living gods ? "
Probus. " Can stones and wood, the workmanship of a
statuary, be living gods ? You know not what you do when
you sacrifice to them."
Maximus. " Wliat insolence At least sacrifice to the
!

great god Jupiter. I will excuse you as to the rest."

Probus. "Do not you blush to call him god who was
guilty of adulteries, incests, and other abominable crimes?"
Maximus. " Beat his mouth with a stone, and bid him not
blaspheme."
Probus. "Why this evil treatment? I have spoken no
worse of Jupiter than they do who serve him. I utter no
lie : speak the truth, as you yourself well know."
I

Maximus. " Heat bars of iron, and apply them to his feet."

-^
 "

*-

268 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. n.

Probus. " This fire is without heat ; at least I feel

none."
Maxinms. " Hoist him on the rack, and let him be
scourged with thongs of raw leather till his shoulders are
flayed."
Probus. "All this does me no harm; invent something
new, and you will see the power of God who is in me and
strengthens me."
Maximus. " Shave his head, and lay burning coals upon
it."

Probus. " You have burnt my head and my feet. You see,
notwithstanding, that I still continue God's servant, and dis-
regard your torments. He will save me : your gods can only
destroy."
Maximus. " Dost thou not see all those that worship them
standing about my honoured by the gods and the
tribunal
emperors ? They look upon thee and thy companions with
contempt."
Probus. " Believe me, unless they repent and serve the
living God, they will all perish, because, against the voice of
their own
conscience, they adore idols."
Maximus. " Beat his face, that he may learn to say '
the
Gods,' and not God.' '

Probus. " You unjustly destroy my mouth and disfigure

my face, because I speak the truth."
Maximus. " I will also cause thy blasphemous tongue to
be plucked out to make thee comply."
Probus. "Besides the tongue which serves me for utterance,
I have an immortal tongue, which is out of reach."
Maximus. " Take him to prison. Let the third come in."

Demetrius the centurion said :

" He is here."
Maximus. " Your companions, Andronicus, were at first

obstinate : but gained nothing thereby but torments and dis-

grace, and have been at last compelled to obey. They shall

»i<-
 -*

Oct. II.]
'^'^- TaracJms aitd Others. 269

receive considerable recompenses. Therefore, to escape

the Hke torments, sacrifice to the gods, and thou shalt be
lionoured accordingly. But if thou refusest, I swear by the
immortal gods and by the invincible emperors, that thou
shalt not escape out of my hands with thy Hfe."
Aiidronicus. " Why do you endeavour to deceive me with
Hes ? They have not renounced the true God. And even
had they done so, you should never find me guilty of such
impiety. God, whom I adore, has clothed me with the arms
of faith and Jesus Christ, my Saviour, is my strength so
; :

that I neither fear your power nor that of your masters and
of your gods. Come, now, cause all your instruments to be
displayed before my eyes, and employed on my body."
Maxitmis. " Bind him to the stakes, and scourge him with
raw thongs."
Andronicus. "There is nothing new or extraordinary in
this torment."
The clerk, Athanasius, said " Thy whole body is but one
:

wound from head to foot, and dost thou count this nothing ? "
Andronicus. " They who love the living God make small
account of this."

Maximus. " Rub his back with salt."

Andronicus. " Give orders, I pray you, that they do not

spare me, that being well seasoned I may be in no danger
of putrefaction, and may be the better able to withstand your
torments."
Maximus. " Turn him, and beat him upon the belly to
open afresh his wounds."
Androtiicus. " You saw when I was brought last before
your tribunal, how I was perfectly cured of the wounds I re
ceived by the first day's tortures. He that cured me then
can cure me a second time."
Maximus, addressing himself to the guards of the prison :

" Villains and traitors " said he, " did I

!
not strictly forbid you

-*
 — "

^ .
^
270 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. n.

to suffer any one to see them or dress their wounds? Yet see
!

here
Pegasus, the jailer, said " I swear by your greatness that
:

no one has apphed anything whatever to his wounds, or had

admittance to him and he has been kept in chains in the
;

most retired part of the prison on purpose. If you catch me

in a He I'll forfeit my head."
Maximus. " How comes it then that there is nothing to be
"
seen of his wounds ?
The Jailer. " I swear by your high birth that I know not
how they have been healed."
Andronicus. "Senseless man, the physician that has healed
me is no less powerful than He is tender and charitable. You
know Him not. He cures not by the application of medicines,
but by His word alone. Though He dwells in heaven, He is

present everywhere, but you know Him not."

Maximus. " Thy idle prating will do thee no service ;

sacrifice, or thou art a lost man."

Andronicus. " I do not change. I am not a child to be
wheedled or frightened."
Maximus. " Do not flatter thyself that thou shalt get the
better of me."
Andronicus. " Nor shall you ever make us yield to your
threats."
Maximus. " My authority shall not be baffled by thee."
Andronicus. " Nor shall it ever be said that the cause of
Jesus Christ is vanquished by your authority."
Alaxiinus. " Let me have several kinds of tortures in
readiness against my next sitting. Put this man in prison
loaded with chains, and let no one be admitted to visit them
in the dungeon."
The third examination was held at Anazarbus. In it

Tarachus answered first with his usual constancy, saying to

all threats that a speedy death would finish his victory and

^
 "

-*

Oct. II.]
^'kS'. Tarachus and Others. 271

complete his happiness ; and that long torments would pro-

cure him the greater recompense.
When Maximus had caused him to be bound and stretched
on the rack, he said :
" I could allege the rescript of Dio-
cletian, which forbids judges to put military men on the rack.
But I waive my privilege, lest you should suspect me of
cowardice."
Maximus said: "Thou flatterest thyself with the hopes
of having thy body eml)almed by Christian women, and
wrapped up in perfumes after thou art dead ; but I will take
care to dispose of thy remains."
Tarachus replied " Do what you please with
: my body, not
only whilst it is living, but also after my death."
Maximus ordered his lips, cheeks, and whole face to be
slashed and cut.
Tarachus said :
" You have disfigured my face ; but have
added new beauty to my soul. I fear not any of your inven-
tions, for I am clothed with the divine armour."
The tyrant ordered spits to be heated, and applied red hot
to his arm-pits ; then his ears to be cut off.

At which the martyr said :

" My heart will not be less
attentive to the word of God."
Maximus said " Tear the skin : off his head; then cover it

with burning coals."

Tarachus replied :
" Though you order my whole body
to be flayed you will not be able to separate me from my
God."
Maximus. "Apply the red-liot spits once more to his

arm-pits and sides."

Tarachus. " O God of heaven, look down upon me and
be my judge !

The governor then sent him back to prison, to be reserved

for the public shows the day following, and called for the
next.

->^
 "

^-

272 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. n.

Probus having been brought forth, Maximus again ex-

horted liini to sacrifice ; but, after many words, ordered him
to be bound and hung up by the feet, then red-hot spits to
be apphed to his sides and back.
Probus said " My body is in your power. May the Lord
:

of heaven and earth vouchsafe to consider my patience, and

the humiUty of my heart."
Maximus. " The God whom thou implorest has dehvered
thee into my hands."
Probus. " He loves men."
Maxiinus. " Open his mouth and pour in some of the
wine which has been offered upon the altars, and thrust
some of the sanctified meat into his mouth."
Probus. " See, O Lord, the violence they offer me, and
judge my cause !

Maxwius. " Now thou seest that after suffering a thousand

torments rather than sacrifice, thou hast nevertheless par-
taken of a sacrifice."

Probus. "You have done no great feat in making me

taste these abominable offerings against my vnW."
Maximus. " No matter, it is now done. Promise now to
do it voluntarily, and thou shalt be released."
Probus. " God forbid that I should yield; but know that
if you should force into me all the abominable offerings of
your whole altars, I should not be defiled ; for God sees the
violence which I suffer."
Maximus. " Heat the spits again, and burn the calves of
his legs with them." Then he said to Probus, "
There is not
a sound part in thy whole body, and still thou persistest in
thy folly. Wretch, what canst thou hope for?"
Probus. " I have abandoned my body to you that my soul
may remain sound."
Maximus. " Make some sharp nails red-hot, and pierce his
hands with them."

*-
 Oct. II.]
'5''5'. Tarachus and Others. 273

Probus. " O my Saviour, I return Thee hearty thanks

that Thou hast been pleased to make me share in Thy
"
sufferings !

Maximtis. " The torments make thee foohsh."

Probus. " Would to God your soul were not blind, and in
darkness."
Maxivius. " Now that thou hast lost the use of all thy
members, thou complainest of my not having deprived thee
of sight. Prick him in the eyes, but by little and little, till

you have bored out the organs of sight."

Probus. " Behold I am now blind. Thou hast destroyed
the eyes of my body ; but canst not take away those of my
soul."
Maximus. " Thou continuest still to argue, but thou art
condemned to eternal darkness."
Probus. " Did you know the darkness in which your soul
is plunged, you would see yourself much more miserable than

I am."
Maximus. " Thou hast no more use of thy body than a
dead man, yet thou talkest stiJl."
Probus. " So long as any vital heat continues to animate
the remains which you have left me of this body, I Avill never
cease to speak of God, to praise and thank Him."
Alaxiinus. " What dost thou hope to survive these tor-
!

ments ? Canst thou flatter thyself that I shall allow thee

one moment's respite ?"
Probus. " I expect nothing from you but a cruel death
and I ask of God only the grace to persevere to the end in
the confession of His holy name."
Maxivius. " I will leave thee to languish, as such an im-
pious wretch deserves. Take him hence. Let the prisoners
be closely guarded that none of their friends find access to

them. I design them for the shows. Let Andronicus be

brought in. He is the most resolute of the three."
VOL. XI. 18
,j, ^
 ;

274 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. n.

The answers and behaviour of the martyrs were often very

disrespectful towards their judges. They were, no doubt,
exasperated by the pain they endured, and the Acts of the
Martyrs contain too often a wearisome string of mutual vitu-

peration ; but it is quite possible that the abusive expressions

put into the mouths of the martyrs were sometimes added by
the writers of the Acts.
S. Paul, however, it will be remembered, called his judge
a whited wall, and threatened him with the anger of God
and S. Augustine says of the martyrs, " They were patient in
torments, faithful in their confession, constant lovers of truth
in all their words. But they cast certain arrows of God
against the impious, and provoked them to anger but they ;

wounded many to salvation." In the answers of S. Andronicus

we find many harsh expressions, insulting to the ministers of
justice, which we must regard as bursting from his hps in

the agony of pain, when incapable of weighing well his words.

The governor pressed Andronicus again to comply with the
edict, adding, that his two companions had at length sacri-
ficed to the gods, and to the emperors themselves. The
martyr replied :
" This is truly the part of an adorer of the
god of lies and by this imposture I know that such men as
:

you are like the gods whom you serve. May God judge you,
O worker of iniquity !"
Maximus ordered rolls of paper to be made, and set on
fire upon the belly of the martyr ; then bodkins to be heated,
and laid red hot betwixt his fingers. Finding him still un-
shaken, he said to him, " Do not expect to die at once. I
will keep thee alive till the time of the shows, that thou
mayest behold thy limbs devoured one after another by cruel
beasts."
Andronicus answered :
" You are more inhuman than the
tigers, and more insatiable for blood than the most bar-
barous murderers."

«^ —^
 _^
Oct. II.]
•5''^. Tarachus and Others. 275

Maximus. " Open his mouth, and put some of the sancti-
fied meat into it, and pour some of the wine into it which
hath been offered to the gods."
Androniciis. " Behold, O Lord, the violence which is

offered to me."
Maximus. " What wilt thou do now ? Thou hast tasted
of the offerings taken from the altar. Thou art now initiated
into the mysteries of the gods."
Androniciis. " Know, tyrant, that the soul is not defiled
when it suffers involuntarily what it condemns. God, who
sees the secrets of hearts, knows that mine has not consented
to this abomination."
Maximus. " How long will this frenzy delude thy ima-
gination ? It will not deliver thee out of my hands."
Andronicus. " God will deliver me when He pleases."
Maximus. " This is a fresh extravagance : I will cause
that tongue of thine to be cut out, to put an end to thy
prating."
Andronicus. " I ask it as a favour that those lips and
tongue with which I have partaken of meats and wine
offered to idols, may be cut off."

Maximus. " Pluck out his teeth, and cut out his blas-
phemous tongue to the very root ; bum them, and then
scatter the ashes in the air, that none of his impious com-
panions, or of the wenches, may be able to gather them up, to
keep as something precious or holy.^ Let him be carried to
his dungeon, to serve for food to the wild beasts in the
amphitheatre."
The trial of the three martyrs having been concluded,
Maximus sent for Terentianus, the chiliarch, and first magis-
trate of the community in Cilicia, who had the care of the

' " Denies ejus et linguam blasphemam tollite, et comburite, et ubique spargite
ut nemo de consortibus ejus impiis aut de mulierculis, aliqua colligat ut servet quas
pretiosum aliquid aut sanctum aestimet."

* — "^
>J*- lj<

276 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. n.

public games and spectacles, and gave him orders to exhibit

a public show next day. In the morning, a prodigious mul-
titude of people flocked to the amphitheatre, which was a mile
distant from the town of Anazarbus. The governor came
thither about noon. Many gladiators and others were slain
in the combats of gladiators and by the beasts, and their
bodies were devoured or lay on the ground.
"We," say the authors of his Acts, " came, but stood on
an adjoining mountain behind, looking over the walls of the
amphitheatre, waiting the issue in great fear and alarm. The
governor at length sent some of the guards to bring the
Christians whom he had sentenced to the beasts. The
martyrs were in so piteous a condition by their torments that,
far from being able to walk, they could not so much as stir

their mangled bodies. But they were carried on the backs

of porters, and thrown down in the pit of the amphitheatre,
below the seat of the governor. We advanced as near as Ave
could on an eminence behind, and concealed ourselves by
piling stones before us as high as our breasts, that we might
not be known or observed. The sight of our brethren in so
dismal a condition made us shed abundance of tears : even
many of the infidel spectators could not contain For
theirs.

no sooner were the martyrs laid down, than an almost universal

deep silence followed at the sight of such dismal objects, and
the people began openly to murmur against the governor for
his barbarous cruelty. Many even left the shows, and re-
turned to the cily, which provoked the governor, and he
ordered more soldiers to guard all the avenues to stop any
from departing, and to take notice of all who attempted it,
that they might be afterwards called to their trial by him.
At the same time he commanded a great number of beasts
to be let loose out of their dens into the arena. These fierce
creatures rushed out, but all stopped near the doors of their
lodges, and would not advance to hurt the martyrs. Maximus,

*
 -*

Oct. II.] ^'S. Tarachus and Others. 277

in a fury, called for the keepers, and caused one hundred

strokes with cudgels to be given them, making them respon-
sible for the tameness of their lions and tigers, because they
were less cruel than himself. He threatened even to crucify
them unless they let out the most ravenous of their beasts.
They turned out a great bear which that very day had killed
three men. He
walked up slowly towards the martyrs, and
began to lick the wounds of Andronicus. That martyr leaned
his head on the bear, and endeavoured to provoke him, but
in vain. Maximus possessed himself no longer, but ordered
the beast to be immediately killed. The bear received the
strokes, and fell quietly before the feet of Andronicus.
Terentianus, seeing the rage of the governor, and treinbling
for himself, immediately ordered a most furious lioness to be
let out. At the sight of her all the spectators turned pale,
and her terrible roarings made the bravest men tremble on
their safe seats. Yet, when she came up to the saints, who
lay stretched on the sand, she laid herself down at the feet of
S. Tarachus, and licked them, quite forgetting her natural
ferocity. Maximus, foaming with rage, commanded her to
be pricked with goads. She then arose and raged about in
a furious manner, roaring terribly, and affrighting all the
spectators who, seeing that she had broken down part of
;

the door of her lodge, which the governor had ordered to be

shut, cried out earnestly that she might be again driven into
her lodge. The governor therefore called for the confectors
or gladiators to dispatch the martyrs with their swords, which
they did. Maximus commanded the bodies to be mingled
with those of the gladiators who had been slain, and
also to be guarded that night by six soldiers, lest the
Christians should carry them off. The night was very
dark, and a violent storm of thunder and rain dispei'sed the
guards.
" And when we were seeking the bodies," continue the

-^
 278 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.11.

three eye-witnesses, "we raised our hands to heaven, praying

God to show us the reHcs of the saints. Then, suddenly, the
merciful God sent a brilliant star from heaven, which rested
on each of the bodies of the saints ; and the bright star went
before us, showing the way. And when we had gone some
distance, we were tired, and we put down the bodies and
rested. But the star did not leave us. And when we medi-
tated where to lay the bodies, we prayed God to perfect by
us the good work that was begun. Then, filled with strength,
we went on, carrying the bodies to a certain part of the moun-
tain, when the star vanished. We found an open rock, and
there we laid the corpses, and concealed them carefully, fear-
ing inquisition by Maximus."
These three Christians, in conclusion, express their desire
to retire to the cave, with resolve to spend there the re-

mainder of their days.

S. KENNY, AB.

(a.d. 599.)

[Irish and Roman Martjrologies. Aberdeen Breviary. The life of

this saint is not printed by the Bollandists, as not conducive to edifi-
cation, being filled with prodigies. Usher quotes from the same life.]

S. Cainec, or Kenny as he is commonly called, was a

native of Kieimacta, in the north of Ireland. His father was
a celebrated bard, named Laidec, of the sept of Mocudalan.
Kenny was bom in the year 516, and, when arrived at the
age of discretion, wishing to acquire learning and lead a re-

ligious life, went and there placed himself under

to Britain,
the venerable abbot Docus, with whom he remained for
some years in close application to his studies, and in the

^ -^
 Oct.!..]
S.Kenny. 279

practice of monastic obedience. Passing by a pretended

tour of his to Rome, for which there is not sufficient

authority, we findhim afterwards at the school of S. Finnian

of Clonard. Having left his school, he is said to have
preached for some years in the northern parts of Ireland.
After some time Kenny proceeded towards the south of
Ireland, and having stayed for a while in some religious
house, wrote a copy of the four Gospels, which was long
preserved, and was called Glass-Kinnich, or the Chain of
Cainech. It is probable from the name that this was a sort

of running commentary on the Gospels. Thence he went to

Upper Ossory, and being kindly received by the inhabitants,
founded the great monastery of Aghaboe. The time of its

foundation is not known, but it was prior to the year 577.

Aghaboe became, in course of time, the residence of the
Bishop of Ossory, the see of Saigir having been transferred
to it.

It is said that Cainech, under the patronage of Colman

MacFeraidhe, prince of Ossory, founded other monastic
establishments in that country. In the life ofS. Columba we

read that that saint was in a boat at sea, when there burst
over him a furious storm. When his disciples in the vessel

besought his prayers, " It is not for me to pray for you to-

day," he answered, " but for the holy abbot Cainech in his
house of Aghaboe." Now at that very time Kenny was in

his refectory —
was the ninth hour breaking the bread
it —
of the Eulogia, when suddenly he heard the voice of his
friend Columba crying to him to assist him, as he was in
great straits.

Kenny once jumped up from table with one shoe on,

at

and crying to his monks, " This is no time for eating whilst
Columba is tossing on the sea," ran to the church, and falling
on his knees before the altar, prayed God to deliver the

abbot of lona.

^ —— )J<
^_ *
280 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. n.

At that moment Columba turned to those who toiled in

rowing on the tumuUuous sea, and said, " Be of good cheer;

God has looked on the zeal of Kenny running to church

with only one shoe on his foot, to pray for us."

Pulcherius bade his disciple Mochumbe build himself a
S.
cell and church, and Mochumbe built first a church and
then a cell, and before he had roofed in the latter S. Pul-
cherius, S. Kenny, S. Fechan, and S. Molua came to see
him, and they stayed with him till late.
And Mochumbe said, " We must eat and sleep in the
church, for there is no roof on the refectory." But S. Fechan
answered, " Not so, we will abide in the refectory, and God
will keep the rain off us through the night." So the saints

slept in the roofless building, and though the clouds hung

low, there was no rain. And in the morning S. Molua said,
" On this place where so great charity has been shown, a

great abundance of divine blessings shall fall."

And S. Pulcherius said, " This roofless hut shall be blessed,
and a noble building shall not fail to stand on the spot as
long as the world rolls."

And S. Kenny said, " The son of death shall not die in
this place."

So the saints blessed the and retired. Then

humble cell

Mochumbe cried out, " My you have blessed my

fathers !

poor walls, have you no benediction for me?" "Son,"

answered the saints, " in spirit we shall ever abide with
thee, and thou shalt become a saint in this place, and stand
with us in the Judgment." And in token they planted there
five stones, " which," says the biographer of S. Pulcherius,

"remain unto this day."

S.Kenny is said to have inherited his father's poetical

skill, and Ware attributes to him a life of S. Columba,

and some hymns in praise of that saint.
Having governed in person, as abbot and priest, the

*-
 -•J<

o^j „-i S. Ethelburga. 281

monastery of Aghaboe, he died in the eighty-fourth year of

his age, on the nth of October, a.d. 599. Aghaboe is now
called Kilkenny, or the Church of S. Kenny.

S. ETHELBURGA, V. ABSS.

(7TH CENT.)

[Anciently venerated in Essex, an office for her with nine lections in

MS. in the Cotton Library. Authority :— Eede, in his Eccl. Hist., and
a life in Capgrave.]

S. Ethelburga was born in Lindsey in the village of

StaHngton; she was the daughter of Offa, and sister of

S. Earconwald, Bishop of London. Her father was not

baptized, and he resented the infantine piety of his daughter,
and combated angrily her resolution to devote herself to a
life of virginity. Bathed in tears after a violent outbreak of
her father's wrath, Ethelburga would steal away to the little
church where she had been baptized and Ethelburga's path
;

in the hottest summer is ever green, and green also in winter

to this day, says her biographer.
Finding that her father was determined to marry her to a
man of wealth and position, she fled to Barking in Essex, ac-
companied by one maid. She arrived there in harvest and
was given shelter by a farmer, on condition that slie should
assist in reaping. She knelt, and lo! angels with sickles
swept down the golden corn whilst she prayed.
S. Earconwald, consecrated Bishop of London in 675 by
S. Theodore of Canterbury, having come into his paternal
inheritance, founded a religious house at Chertsey, in Surrey,
for men, and one for women at Barking, over which he
placed his sister Ethelburga as first abbess.
Whilst Barking Abbey was being built, a beam was

-*
 brought for the roof which, when fitted, was found too short.
Then Earconwald took one end and Ethelburga the other,
and pulled it out to the proper length.
As Barking was the first religious house for women
founded in England, Earconwald sent for the holy woman,
Hildelitha, who had been brought up in a French convent,
to assume the direction.
A pestilence swept away the priests who ministered at the
altars of the convent and carried off many of the nuns.
This was in 664. Consternation fell on the survivors. But
one night as the sisters went from their church, at the end
of matins, to pray at the graves of the clergy who had pre-
ceded them into the other world, they saw all at once the
whole sky lighted up and cover them all as with a radiant
shroud. It was a flash of summer lightning which their
imaginations transformed into a luminous gravecloth flung
across the sky above their heads. They were so terrified
that the hymn they were singing died on their lips. By this

mysterious light they saw the graveyard illumined, and

noticed that there was abundance of space for many graves.
They understood showed them the
that this flash of light
place where their bodies must lie, and revealed at the same
time to them the glory into which their souls would gaze.
There was a nun at Barking, named Theoritgytha, who,
after having been long the humble and zealous assistant of

Ethelburga, was warned of the death of the abbess, her

friend, by a vision, in which she saw her dear Ethelburga
wrapped in a shroud which shone like the sun, and raised to
heaven by golden chains, which represented her good works.
Ethelburga died shortly after. Deprived of her spiritual

mother, Theoritgytha lived for nine years in the most cruel

sufferings, in order, says Bede, that the furnace of this daily
tribulation might consume all the imperfection that remained
among her many virtues. At last paralysis assailed all her

^-
 -*

Oct. II.] S. Jtilia. 283

members, and even her tongue. Three days before her

death she recovered sight and speech she was heard to ex-
;

change some words with an invisible visitor. It was Ethel-

burga, who had come to announce her dehverance to her.

" I can scarcely bear this joy " said the sick woman; and
!

the following night, freed at once from sickness and from the
bondage of the flesh, she entered into everlasting blessedness.
S. Ethelburga of Barking is not to be confounded with
S. Ethelburga of Lyming, widow of King Edwin.

S. JULIA, V. ABSS.

(8th cent.)

[Gallican and Benedictine Martyrologies. Authority : — The notice

by Saussaye in his Martyrology.]

S. Julia or Juliana was a young servant girl at Pavilly in

Normandy, who desired with all her heart to enter the con-
vent at Pavilly, ruled at that time by Benedicta, next after the
foundress, S. Austreberta. Julia besought the abbess to give
her the veil, but Benedicta scorned and repulsed her because
she was poor and of ignoble birth. Then Julia betook her-
self to prayer to the foundress, and on the anniversary of the
death of Austreberta, entered the church and threw her arms
about the tomb of the holy abbess, and bursting into floods
of tears, vowed she would not let go till her request was
granted. Benedicta, incensed at the pertinacity of the girl,

ordered her to be removed by force. But instantly she was

stricken with fever, her head became giddy, her heart faint,
her face flushed. Alarmed at her condition, and attributing
it to her harshness, she promised to accept Julia, and the
fever left her instantaneously.
As a nun, Julia proved herself a burning and shining
light ; she walked in such an atmosphere of supernatural

'^
284 Lives of the Saints. [oct. n

sanctity that the sisters regarded her with awe and called
her the " Little Sister of Jesus." When Benedicta died,
there was but one opinion among them all, that Julia must
succeed her, and so the servant girl became abbess over
nuns of noble birth.
Her body was translated to Montreuil along with that of
S. Austreberta.

S. GUMMAR, C.

(8th cent.)

[Roman, Belgian, and Gallican Martyrologies. Authority:— A life

by Theobald in the 12th century.]

This saint was born about the year 717, at Emblehem, a

village near Lyre, or Lierre, in Brabant, where was the castle
belonging to his father.He served under King Pepin, and
was married to a lady named Grimnaira but the union was ;

not a hapjDy one. The lady oppressed the poor whilst her
husband was from home, and on his return resented iiis

attempts to right the wrongs she had inflicted on them.

One day she refused drink to the reapers ; Gummar at once
drove his staff into theground and produced a spring.
He started on a pilgrimage to Rome, and at nightfall cut
down a tree to serve as his pillow. The owner of the tree
was incensed at what Gummar had done. Whereupon the
saint — so runs the tale — stuck up the tree again and tied the
branches on with his girdle, and it grew together as of old.
Instead of going on to Rome he betook himself to the
forest of Nives-donck and built a hermitage. He died there
about the year 774. His body was afterwards translated to
the collegiate church of Lierre.
The feast of S. Gummar attracts every year crowds to his
shrine at Lierre, to invoke his aid against hernia.
 .

*- -*

Oct. 12.]
5*. Domnina. — S. Pantahcs. 285

October 12.

S. MoNAS, B. of Milan; a.d. 249.

S. Domnina, M. at Anazarbus in Cilicia ; circ. a.d. 304.
S. Maximilian, B.M. at Cilli in Styria ; circ. a.d. 308.
S. Julian, B.C. at Lodi; circ. a.d. 324-
S. Pantalus, B.M. of Basle; a.d. 451.
SS. Cyprian, Felix, BB., and Others, MM. in Africa,
a.d. 482.
S. FiECH, B. ofSletty in Ireland; beginning of 6th cent
S. Edwin, K. of Northumbria; a.d. 633.
S. Wilfrid, B. of York; a.d. 709.
S. Seraphin, C, O.M. at Ascoli in Italy; a.d. 1154.

S. DOMNINA, M.

(about a.d. 304.)

[Roman Martyrology, introduced by Gallesinius from the Greek

Menology. —Mention in the Menology.]
Authority :

DOMNINA suffered in the persecution of

Diocletian. She was a native of Anazarbus in
CiUcia. The were burnt, and her
soles of her feet
back was scourged. She died of exhaustion in
l^rison.

S. PANT ALUS, B.T^I.

(a.d. 451.)

[Lubeck-Cologne Martyrology of 1584, Peter de Natalibus, Ferrarius,

and tlie Acta Sanctorum. Authority —
Mention in the Legends of
:

S. Ursula.]

This purely apocryphal saint is fabled to have been

bishop of Basle, and to have been so struck with enthusiasm
or moved by courtesy, on the passage of S. Ursula and her

^- -*
*-

286 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 12.

eleven thousand virgins, that he accompanied them down

the Rhine as far as Cologne. The fascinations or the virtues
of the eleven thousand must have been great indeed, for a
swarm of ecclesiastics followed them, amongst them a Pope
— only an apocryphal one, however and cardinals. —The
eleven thousand, with their devoted followers, bishops, cardi-
nals, and pope, together with some babes, were massacred
at Cologne by the Huns. Schoepflin, in his " Alsatia illus-
trata," in 1751, wrote: "No historian or martyrologist, nor
even those who describe the martyrdom of S. Ursula and
her company, mention Pantalus before the 15th century. It
is true that a certain Pantalus is mentioned in the Revela-
tions of Elizabeth of Schonau, who flourished in the reign of
Frederick I., about 1156, but such writings do not deserve
to be classed as historical. If there be any historical foun-

dation, it is buried under abundance of fable. In the 15th

and following century, martyrologists are found who inserted
Pantalus among the companions of Ursula, and reckoned him
as their fellow martyr, on no other grounds than the revela-
tions of Elizabeth of Schonau."
The ecstatic Elizabeth having revealed that there was a
Pantalus, Bishop of Basle, who was martyred at Cologne, his
body was sought there and found in 1155, immediately after
the revelation had been made. It was found in a stone

coffin with his name inscribed upon it as follows: " Pantalus,

Basileensis episcopus, Virgines sacras cum gaudio susceptas

Romam perduxit,unde reversus Coloniam pervenit, ibique
cum eis martyrium suscepit, et S. Grata Junior." That this
was a forged inscription, and that the body was one obtained
from a graveyard to assist the ijnposture, is not a matter
admitting of question.
The body is in the church of the SS. Maccabees at Cologne,
the head at Basle, in which diocese the translation of this
precious relic is commemorated on October 12. Some

*-
 -^

Oct. 12.] '^'^- Cyprian and Felix. 287

relics at S. Tron, others in the church of the Apostles at

Cologne, in a silver shrine. An arm at Arlesheim, two thigh
bones at Aldbergen, some more bones in the church of
S. Ursula at Cologne.

SS. CYPRIAN AND FELIX, BB., MM.

(about a.d. 4S2.)

[Roman and many ancient Latin Martyrologies. Authority Their

: —
Acts in the History of the Vandal Persecution by Victor of Utica, a
contemporary and sufferer in it.]

About two years before the general persecution of the

Catholics broke out under Huneric, the Vandal king in North
Africa, many had previsions of what would take place. One
saw the church of S. Faustus at Carthage adorned ^vith
tapestry, and illumined with countless lamps and tapers,
as for a great festival, when suddenly the lights were extin-
guished, and instead of the fragrance of incense rose the
stench of a charnel-house. He who saw this vision came to
Eugenius the bishop and related to him what he had seen,
in the presence of Victor, Bishop of Utica, who records it.
Another saw a great heap of wheat mingled with chaff, and
a mighty wind arose and sifted the grain from the husk;
then appeared a man with shining face and robes, and he
went over the grain with his hand and sorted the good from
the bad and mouldy and black, and reduced the heap con-
siderably in size thereby. Bishop Quintian dreamed that he
saw a beautiful flock being slain by butchers and cast into
caldrons till all were consumed.
The first sign of the breaking of the storm was the com-
mand issued by Huneric that none should serve in his
palace, or execute public functions who were not x\rians.

-*
 ;

Many renounced their charges, and were thereupon driven

from their houses, despoiled of and banished
their property,
to Sicily and Sardinia. He next ordered that no Catholic
bishop was to be consecrated he had paid to the treasury
till

five hundred pieces of gold. But when he was told that if

was insisted on, the orthodox emperor would impose the
this

same tax on the Arians in Thrace and elsewhere, he revoked

the edict. He next assembled the consecrated virgins, and
used every means in his power to bribe or terrify them into
bringing false accusations against the bishops, which might
serve as an excuse for him to depose and banish them. To
force them to give false evidence he had recourse to torture.
They were hung up by the hands, and weights attached to
their feet ; red-hot plates of iron were applied to their backs,
breasts, and sides. Many died under these tortures, others
were so mutilated that they were left permanently crippled
but not one was found who would give the evidence sought.
Huneric, after this, exiled the bishops, priests, and deacons,
and other influential Catholics, to the number of four thou-
sand nine hundred and seventy-six ; they were banished to
the Libyan desert. Among them were the old, the gouty, and
the sick. Felix, Bishop of Abbirita, who had occupied the
see forty years, was paralysed, and had lost both the power
to walk and to speak. The Catholic bishops, not knowing
how him along with them, begged the king to allow
to lead
the poor old man to remain and die in peace in Carthage.
But Huneric ordered, " If he cannot sit on horseback, let
him be attached by cords to a couple of oxen, and be drawn
thus to his place of banishment." He was conveyed on a
mule, tied across it, like a sack of flour. All the confessors
were assembled in the towns of Sicca and Larsea, whence
the Moors were to conduct them to the desert. They were
provisionally enclosed in a prison, to which their fellow-
Catholics were permitted access, to encourage them, and

*-
 9

* — *
Oct. 12.] SS. Cyprian and Felix. 289

give them the Divine Mysteries. Among them were several

young children; and their mothers, yielding to their parental
love, begged them to allow themselves to be re -baptized by
the Arians, so as to obtain their freedom. But the children
remained as firm as their fellow-captives.
The prisoners were then thrust into a smaller place, where
there was not room for them ; they were crowded so densely
that they were nearly suffocated, nor was any provision made
for their cleanliness. The filth and stench became so horrible,
that it was the worst of all their sufferings.
Victor of Utica,
who describes all this, succeeded in penetrating into this
horrible den he had to wade up to
; his knees in ordure.
When the Moors received instructions to drive the captives
forward, the Catholics issued from their prison in a condition
of indescribable filth. Itwas on a Sunday when they emerged
from this pestilential den into the glaring sunlight. They
burst forth into a chant of triumph, the 149th Psalm, " Such
honour have all His saints."

Cyprian, bishop of Uniziba, consoled them, and gave them

everything he had. Shortly afterwards he was also arrested,
imprisoned, and exiled.
As the long, foul, but joyous procession wound over the
sand-hills it was followed by crowds. The roads were too
narrow to contain the throng; they covered the hill sides,

holding tapers in their hands, in token of their burning faith.

Women cast their children at the feet of the confessors, im-

ploring from them a blessing. " Who," sobbed they, " will
baptize our little ones ? Who will give us absolution ? Who
will bury us ? Who will offer the divine sacrifice ? May we
follow you !" Among the crowd was noticed an old woman
carrying a sack over her shoulder, and leading a child. She
persistently followed the confessors, and would not leave
them. When the child lagged, she urged him forwards with,
" Run, my boy do you not see
! these saints, how eager tliey
VOL. XI 1

*
*•

290 Lives of the Saints, [Oct. 12.

are to win their crown ? " Those who attended the prisoners
advised her to return home. " Pray for me, and for this

child," she answered ;

" I am the daughter of the late bishop
of Zurita, and this is my I lead him along with
grandson.
me lest the enemy should find him alone, and take him to
death." The bishops, bathed in tears, said, " The mil of
God be done."
They travelled by night rather than by day, because of the
heat of the sun, and lodged in caves, or under such rough
shelter as had been extemporized for their reception.
During the march, when the old men and children could
walk no more, they were goaded on with the points of the
spears, or stones were cast at them to stimulate them.
^Vhen they fell, unable to proceed, the Moors tied their
feet, and they were drawn along like dead beasts. The
stones tore their garments and skin. One had his head
broken, the side of another was ripped open, and many died,
and were given hasty burial all along the way. The food
provided for those who walked was uncrushed barley. When
they reached their destination they found a desolate, sandy
waste, full of venomous beasts, and there they lingered out
a miserable existence, till death ended their sorrows, and
translated them to a glorious immortality.

S. FIECH, B.C.

(beginning of 6th century.)

[Irish Martyrologies. Authority : — Mention in the tripartite Hfe of

S. Patrick, and in the other lives of the Apostle of Ireland.]

In Carlow lived, at the time that S. Patrick was preaching

the faith in Ireland, a chief bard, named Dubtach, with
whom he had contracted a warm friendship. There is

^ 4i
i^ *
Oct. 12.] ^- ^i^C^. 291

nothing in legend more poetic than the meeting between

the Gallo-Roman apostle and the Irish bards, who formed
an hereditary and sacerdotal class. Among them he found
his most faithful disciples. Ossian himself, the blind Homer
of Ireland, is said to have allowed himself to be converted by
him, and Patrick is reported to have Hstened in his turn as
he sang the long epic of Keltic kings and heroes. Harmony
was not established between these two without being pre-
ceded by storms. Patrick threatened with hell the profane
warriors whose glory Ossian vaunted, and the bard replied
to the apostle, " If thyGod were in hell, my heroes would
draw him thence." But triumphant truth made peace
between poetry and faith. The monasteries Patrick founded
became the asylum and centre of Keltic poetry. '' When
once blessed and transformed," says an old author, "the
songs of the bards became so sweet, that the angels of God
leant down from heaven to listen to them." ^
S. Patrick visited Dubtach the arch-bard, father, more

over, of the blessed Bridget, and in one of their conversa-

tions the saint asked his friend if he knew any one in that
country whom he could promote to holy orders. Dubtach
answered that he had a disciple named Fiech, a sweet
singer and harpist, then absent, who was a modest, God-
fearing man. Before the conversation was ended Fiech
returned from Connaught, whither Dubtach had sent him to
present some poems of his composition to the princes of
that province. Fiech was of an illustrious family, being son
of" Ere, of the house of Hy-Bairrch in Leinster. He was a
widower, left with an only son, named Fiacher. He was not
yet baptized, but he was a catechumen. S. Patrick examined
him, gave him the washing of regeneration, and the tonsure,
and after some time ordained him bishop. His see was at
Sletty, and he is said also to have governed a monastery,
'
Quoted by La Villemarque, " La Legende Celtique," p. 109.
 which was called Domnach-Fiech, at the east of the Barrow,
in Carlo w. He
had a monastery as well at Sletty, which
was his own patrimony. He lived to an extremely advanced
age, and it is said that sixty of his disciples departed this life
before him. It is therefore probable that he died at the
very beginning of the 6th century.

S. EDWIN, K.M.
(a.d. 633.)

[By error in Wilson's Anglican iNIartyrology on Oct. 4 (iv. Octobris,

instead of iv. Id. Octobijs). Not in other martyrologies. But several
churches in England dedicated to him.]

The life of Edwin, King of Northumbria, is so intimately

mixed up with that of S. Paulinus of York, that the reader is
referred for it to the life of this latter saint, on Oct. loth.

S. WILFRID, BP. OF YORK

(a.d. 709.)

[Roman Martyrology. The Translation of S. Wilfrid on April 24,

the Deposition on Oct. 12. York and Hereford Kalendars, not Sarum.
Lives by Eddius and Eadmer Bede, "Eccl. Hist." ii. iii. iv. v. MS.
; ;

Offices of S. Wilfrid for parish of Ripon, a.d. 1418 ; "Fasti Ebora-

censes," i. 55-83, and authorities there cited.]

The life of S. Wilfrid possesses special interest and im-

portance as that of one of the greatest men of his day, who
lived through one of the greatest crises that theChurch in
England has experienced, and who, by his character and
conduct, influenced public affairs as few men could have
done. His thoughts, his energies, his singular abilities, his

^. .
^
^ ^
Oct. 12.] ^- Wilfrid. 293

earnest prayers, were, from the time of his arriving at early

manhood, all directed to that great revival of religion which
was ushered in by the mission of S. Augustine. The strong
Roman sympathies which he formed in early life increased
as years rolled on, and he visited the holy city no less than
three times. He was the first English prelate to appeal to
the Roman pontiff against the powers that thwarted him at
home. Of his eventful life we have very full particulars
preserved by his friend and chaplain, Stephen Eddi, whose
account, though to be received with caution as that of an
ardent partisan, is nevertheless of great value as that of a
contemporary writer.

S. Wilfrid was born a.d. 634, of noble parents, somewhere

in Northumbria. None of the early biographers mention
their name or residence, and the local tradition that Ripon
was his birthplace, and AUhallowgate the precise locality, is

probably a pleasing fiction of comparatively recent origin.

His birth, Uke and others, is said to have

that of S. Cuthbert
been signalized by a miraculous light from heaven, filling the
whole house, so that the neighbours, thinking it was on fire,
ran for water to put out the flames. The midwives, however,
told them that a man-child was born, and that it was no
common fire which they saw, but a sign from heaven be-
tokening the favour of God. The old writers are very
eloquent on this light, as being like that in the burning bush,
indicating that the new-born child was truly a child of light,

destined by God to lighten the whole land of Britain. Wil-

frid is described as having been a grave and holy child, of
remarkable beauty, fond of the society of older people, and,
when in the presence of those who visited his father, "swift

to hear, and slow to speak." His first great trial was the
loss of his mother, his next the harshness of a stepmother.
This led to his early departure from his father's house, which
took place when he was in his thirteenth year, at his own
 : *

»J,_ *
294 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. m.

desire. He set his mind on going to court, like other noble

youths, and was accordingly provided by his father with
arms, and horses, and servants, all equipped as befitted one
who was to stand before kings. Being moved by the ex-
ample of the patriarchs, he asked for his father's blessing,
and, having obtained it, he left the home of his childhood
for the court of Oswi, King of Northumbria. We have
already seen that Wilfrid was " a proper child," and are not
when he appeared at court
surprised therefore to find that
as a handsome boy of noble bearing, introduced by courtiers
on whom he had attended in the home he was leaving, he
met with a kindly reception from Eanfled, the queen. He
speedily won all hearts by his bright and happy face and
disposition, tempered by a serenity which is described as
angelic. He appears soon to have found a second mother
in the queen, to whom he confided his desire to serve God
more She accordingly prevailed on the king to
perfectly.
excuse him from military training, and appointed him to
attend on a noble named Cudda, an old friend and coun-
sellor of the royal house, who, being now palsied and weary

of the world, was longing to end his days as a monk at

Lindisfarne. And when Cudda decided to go, Wilfrid must
needs go too he ; also yearned for a holier life ; the boy's
heart was drawn to the heart of the man, and they two
together, the one in the morning of life the other at the
eventide, turned their backs upon the world to devote them-
selves entirely to the service of God. As we are so beauti-
fully taught by our own poet

" He loves when age and youth are met,

Fervent old age and youth serene,
Their high and \o\i in concord set
For sacred song, joy's golden mean." '

At Lindisfarne he soon became as great a favourite as he

' "The Christian Year"— S. Simon and S. Jude.

*- —
 -*

Oct. 12.]
6". Wilfrid. 295

had been at Court, and he applied himself earnestly to study

and devotion. He soon learned the whole of the psalter by
heart, as monks were accustomed to do, and his constant
companions were the Holy Scriptures, the writings of the
Fathers, and such other books as the monastic library con-
tained. Here he remained for about four years, during
which, as his mind became more formed and his judg-
ment matured, he grew less and less satisfied with the
Scottish usages, and was convinced that there was a more
excellent way, and that this was to be learned at Rome, and
Rome alone. It is not hard to divine how he was led to
this conviction. Queen Eanfled had been brought up under
her mother's care and under Paulinus's direction in a monas-
tery in Kent,^ and was thoroughly Roman. With her was her
chaplain Romanus. Oswi and his clergy were of the Scottish
school. There was a constant controversy at court between
Rome and lona, and thus the seed of strife was sown in
Wilfrid's heart. His connection with the court and with
Lindisfarne would naturally lead to his forming the acquaint-
ance of some of the Roman missionaries, whose teaching
and conversation would be to him as the opening out of a
new world. We are not to think of him at Lindisfarne as a
mediaeval recluse. The Saxon monasteries were schools of
learning for young nobles and clerics as well as retreats for
ascetic devotion, and Wilfrid appears to have resided as a
scholar, being allowed at times to leave the place. Accord-
ingly we him consulting not only his brethren
find in the
monastery, but his father at home, and his friends in the
royal palace, respecting his future course. The road to
Rome is spoken of as having been up to that time un-
trodden by our people, butthis made no difference to Wil-

fridwhen once he had set his heart on journeying thither.

He had resolved to learn the way of God more perfectly,
* See Bede, "Hist. Eccl."ii. ix. xx. ; iii. xv.

-*
^_ — (Jj

296 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. „.

under the very shadow of S. Peter, and to behold for himself

the glories of the Eternal City. And as he had quitted the
court for Lindisfame, so now he was restless till he could
quit Lindisfarne for Rome. The brethren bade him God
speed, and the queen, with his father's concurrence, did all

in her power She gave him letters of

to favour his project.
introduction to her cousin Erconbert, King of Kent, asking
him to provide her young friend with safe and honourable
conduct to Rome. The king received him kindly, and both
he and Honorius, the archbishop, a disciple of S. Gregory,
may well have been charmed by Wilfrid's devotion to re-
ligion and his thirst for knowledge. He
would be no less
pleased to become acquainted with such men as he would
meet at Canterbury. But his patience was sorely tried by
his having to stay there a whole year, and he employed him-
self partly in committing to memory the Roman psalter (the
earliest version of S.Jerome) and unlearning the Galilean (a
later Hieronymian version), which he had learned at Lindis-
farne. This was much one who had acquired our
as if

Bible version should set to work and master the Prayer-

Book version in the same way. At last it happened that
another young EngUsh noble, who, like Wilfrid, had been
attached to Oswi's court, one Baducing, better known as
Benedict Biscop, the founder of Jarrow and Monk Wear-
mouth, was also desirous to visit Rome. Wilfrid was allowed
to go under his protection, he being probably the older of
the two. On their arrival at Lyons they were honourably
received by Delphinus, the archbishop. Benedict continued
his journey almost immediately, but Wilfrid, notwithstanding
his impatience to see Rome, was induced to remain at
Lyons for a whole year. seems not unlikely that the
It
youth was in love, however much he might strive against
such tender emotions. Delphinus, who appears to have
been a sort of " prince-bishop," offered to make him his

^ —— »j(
S i' 'y V

S. WILFRID, BISHOP OF YORK.

rroDQ a Erawin^ by A.Welby Pugin.

->b
 -^

Oct. X2.] ^. Wilfrid. 297

heir, to give him his niece in marriage, and to appoint him

governor over a great part of the country. But none of
these inducements availed to turn him from his great pur-
pose, whatever they may have had do with his tarrying so
to
long on the way. He courteously and gratefully declined
the honours that were offered to him, stranger as he was,
answering that the vows of the Lord were upon him, that
like Abraham he had left home and kindred in obedience
to a call from God, and that to this call alone he could now
give ear. Delphinus could not but admire him all the more
for such pious determination, and having furnished him with
a guide and all things needful, sent him on his journey,
earnestly desiring him again to stay at Lyons as he returned
to the north.
As soon as he arrived in Rome he went to the oratory of
S.Andrew, probably at the monastery of S. Andrew on the
Coelian Hill, which S. Gregory had founded.^ Prostrating
himself before the altar, over which was placed a large
Book of the Gospels, he besought with tears that he might
have understanding given him, and power to teach those
gospels to others. While engaged in his daily work of seek-
ing out and praying at the tombs of the martyrs, and other
holy places, he became acquainted with Boniface the arch-
deacon, secretary to Pope Martin I. The archdeacon's
house was the school of the clergy; candidates for holy
orders came to be instructed by him, and were ordained, as
at present, on his certifying to their fitness. And so Wilfrid,
aspiring to the priesthood, would be likely to come in his
way.
From this new friend he received instruction in the

'
See Life of S. Gregory, vol. iii. p. 227 Stanley's Canterbury, 1857, p. 5. The
memory
;

of Wilfrid's prayers here was preserved in the Ripon Offices: "Resp. iii.
—
Andrea piissime Apostolorum Dei, experiar vincula mese impietatis per tua merila
solvi. Vers, O fides famuli Dei, non citius oravit quam modum elocutionis per-
cepit."

-*
^ _ *
298 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 12

Gospels, in the Roman rule for Easter, and in the many

other matters of ecclesiatical discipline respecting which he
had been desirous of information.^ Having received the
Pope's blessing, and taken leave of his kind instructor, he
returned to Lyons, where he was again most hospitably
entertained. Doubtless he had much to tell of what he had
seen and heard during his first visit to Rome. At Lyons he
sojourned for three years, and received the Roman tonsure
from Delphinus, thus casting off the last outward mark of his
early religious life.

It is impossible to say how much longer he might have

stayed in Lyons had not Bathild, Queen of France, begun
to persecute the Church. Delphinus suffered martyrdom,
and Wilfrid wished to suffer with him. The persecutors,
however, would not touch him when they found that he was
an Englishman, but allowed him to bury Delphinus in peace
and return to his own land.
On his arrival he found, to his great joy, Alcfrid, the son
of King Oswi, associated with his father in the govern-
ment of Northumbria, and both of them ardent supporters
of the Church. Alcfrid had been on the point of going to
Rome with Biscop in 653, but was detained by his father. Like
many of the rising youth of the country, he avowed his pre-
ference for Roman usages; his father, on the other hand,
remained strongly attached to the national customs. Wil-
frid had landed somewhere in the kingdom of the West

Saxons, and begun to preach. King Canwalch sent a report

of him to Alcfrid, how he had come home full of what he
had learned at Canterbury, and Lyons, and Rome. This
occasioned a summons for him to return speedily to his
native Northumbria. They must have known each other,

'
An interesting relic of Boniface has recently been found in a rubbish-heap at
Whitby, namely, a leaden words BONIFATII ARCHIDIAC, which
bulla, with the
was possibly once attached to a document brought to England by Wilfrid himself.

^ ^*
 -*

Oct. 12.] ^. Wilfrid. 299

one would suppose, as boys together in the palace of Oswi.

However this may have been, Wilfrid was received as an

angel of God, he was regarded as a hero, having been at

Rome and witnessed martyrdom. Alcfrid prostrated himself
before him and besought his blessing. Then they had much
religious converse on the Roman discipline, and doubtless
on the wonderful Rule of S. Benedict, which in all probability
excited in the prince that great munificence which he so
soon displayed. As their mutual love increased day by
day, they soon became, as Eddi says, like David and Jona-
than. The prince bestowed on the ecclesiastic an estate at
Stamford, and another at Ripon, which included a monastery
he had previously founded there for Scottish monks, where
Eata and S. Cuthbert were now resident. These, however,
had to choose between accepting the Roman traditions,
which Wilfrid was determined to introduce, and leaving the
place. They could not give up their national usages, and so
had to make way for others who were willing to be ruled by
Wilfrid. He had not, however, as yet obtained priest's
seemed now desirable, he was at Alcfrid's
orders, but as this
request ordained by Agilbert, Bishop of the West Saxons.
The Roman movement had by this time made such pro-
gress in the north that the Church was fairly spHt up into
two parties. The controversy which had begun in the mon-
astery at Ripon spread through the whole of Northumbria,
and nowhere were men less of one mind in a house than
in the King's court. Oswi, as we have seen, adhered to the
traditions of his father; Eanfled his wife, and Alcfrid his
son, to the Roman innovations, so that the Easter of the one
party in some years coincided with the Passion-tide of the
other.
Under these circumstances, Oswi summoned a council at
Streanshalch, now Whitby. On the Scottish side were Colman,
the Northumbrian bishop, with his clergy ; Hilda, Abbess of

-^
 "

^.

300 Lives of the Saints, foct. 12

Whitby; Cedd, Bishop of the East Saxons, a Yorkshireman

On the Roman, Agilbert, Bishop of
by birth, and King Oswi.
theWest Saxons the priests Agatho and Wilfrid James, the
; ;

deacon of S. Pauhnus Romanus, the queen's chaplain, and

;

Alcfrid. The chief points in dispute were, the time of keep-

ing Easter and the mode of making the tonsure. It may be
well here to say a little about the famous " Paschal Contro-
versy," and the tonsure. The Churches of Asia, professedly on
the authority of S. John the Evangelist and S. Philip, kept
Easter Day not of necessity on a Sunday, but always on
the same day as the Jewish Passover, viz., the 14th day of
Nisan or Abib, which month began with the new moon next
to the vernal equinox, so that the " Paschal full moon
appeared on the 14th day. Hence those who kept Easter on
this day were called " Quartodecimans." The other Churches,
especially those of the West, kept Easter Day on the Sunday
after the Jewish Passover, as we do now, claiming the au-
thority of S. Peterand S. Paul, and this rule was confirmed
by the Nicene Council. But the time of the vernal equinox
was a matter of astronomical calculation, and the British and
Scottish churches, although always keeping Easter Day on a
Sunday, and so not being Quartodecimans, as has sometimes
been supposed, differed from the Romans as to the calcula-
tion adopted, and so as to the particular Sunday kept as
Easter Day, much as we now differ from the Greek Church.
Then as to the tonsure, the Romans shaved the top of the
head, leaving a circle of hair like the crown of thorns ; the
Britons and Scots shaved the front part of the head from
ear to ear. On these and on other ceremonial differences,
not so particularly handed down to us, the controversy was
carried on with a vehemence that we can now scarcely
understand. Colman grounded the Scottish traditions on
the authority of S. John the beloved disciple, and of S.
Columba. Wilfrid, who was the chief speaker on the other

*-
 —^

-*

Oct. 12.] S. Wilfrid. 301

side,and much the more able man of the two, defended the
Roman usages by an appeal to the Chair of St. Peter, the
rock on which Christ had built His Church, and to whom
He had given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. A long
discussion took place, which is reported at length by Bede

(H. E.,
25). King
iii. Oswi seems to have been convinced
by Wilfrid's learning and eloquence, and said, perhaps in a
half jesting way, that he dare not now gainsay the authority
of S. Peter, lest when he came to heaven's gate the keeper
of the keys should refuse to let him ir. , It has, indeed, been
suggested that he may have been actuated by the more sub-
lunary motive of desiring to stand well with the supposed
representative of S. Peter on earth. Wilfrid certainly gained
the day, and Colman, unconvinced, retired with his adhe-
rents to lona, leaving Wilfrid and Alcfrid masters of the
situation. Cedd and Hilda were induced to adopt the
Roman view, by which, with respect to Easter, we have
been regulated ever since.

One Tuda was appointed to succeed Colman, but he soon

afterwards died in a pestilence, and now all eyes were turned
on Wilfrid as the fittest person to take his place. On his
nomination by the two kings, Oswi and Alcfrid, he at first

excused himself as unworthy, but soon consented. He

would, however, on no account receive consecration from
any Scottish bishops, or from any who had been consecrated
by them. He begged to be sent to France, where he might
be consecrated by prelates who were in full communion with
the Apostolic See. Alcfrid sent him to his old friend Agilbert,
who had ordained him priest, who had supported him at the
" Many a disputation is turn'd off the hinges by that which is very Httle to the
'

purpose, forwhen the judgment is tired, then anything that strikes the fancy pre-
vails. Thus, King Oswy was carried away with a notion that S. Peter was literally
3. porter, and that he lay at his mercy whether he should ever be able to enter into
heaven . . this gave so great a turn to the English nation that it was thereby
.

brought to a subjection to Rome." Joint. Wyat, 1706, in Peck's Stamford, 1727,

page 20.

->f«
*-

302 Lives of the Saints. joct 12.

Council of Whitby, and who at that time was Bishop of Paris.

Eleven other bishops assisted at the consecration, which took
place at Compiegne, \vith all the pomp that Wilfrid so dearly
loved. The bishops themselves golden
carried him in a
chair, which no one of lower rank was allowed to touch, in
fair procession, with music and singing. And he was conse-
crated to the see of York, which the great Paulinus had held
as Archbishop of Northumbria —a position, doubtless, for

which his royal friends thought no one could be better fitted,

than which none could have been more congenial to his
own ambition. Little did he think what troubles awaited
him, now that he seemed at the very height of prosperity.
On the voyage home he and his companions were cast ashore
by a storm on the coast of Sussex, which left their ship high
on the sands at the ebb of the tide. The natives attacked
it, and a conflict ensued, in which five of Wilfrid's men were
lost, but the attacking party were driven back. With the
flood they got away to sea, and landed at Sandwich in Kent.
Meanwhile, even Wilfrid's own friends became impatient at
his long absence, and the Scottish party were not idle. They
now saw their opportunity, and Oswi, perhaps but half con-
vinced at the Council of Whitby, was so influenced by them
as now to forward their views. Alcfrid had perhaps died of
the plague that carried off Tuda. Neither Eanfled nor
Wilfrid's other friends had power enough to keep the see
vacant for him. The humble-minded presbyter Chad was
induced to leave his quiet retreat at Lastingham to be con-
secrated by Wina, Bishop of Winchester, and two British
bishops, as Bishop of York, with jurisdiction over the whole
of Northumbria, so as entirely to exclude Wilfrid.' It must

have been a severe disappointment to him when he did

return to find the see occupied. But he acquiesced in what
had been done so far as to retire peaceably to his monas-
' See Life of S. Chad, vol. iii. p. 25.

*-
 ~rif

—^'^^

=S^8l--^ t '" / '^y''-///f

'•'-'-"5,;, "v >\

S. WILFRID.

-*
Oct. 12.
 -*

Oct 12.]
'S'. Wilfrid. 303

Stamford and Ripon, invited occasionally by Egbert,

teries at

King of Kent, and Wulfhere, King of Mercia, to exercise

episcopal functions in their dominions, for they were without
bishops. This state of things continued for about three
years, butwas put an end to at last by the arrival of Theo-
dore of Tarsus in England as metropoHtan, a.d. 669.
Wilfrid's acquaintance with Eddi, and his attachment to
the Benedictine rule, began in the interval. Theodore suc-
ceeded in bringing about an amicable arrangement, whereby
Chad willingly retired to Lastingham, and Wilfrid was esta-
blished at York as bishop of all Northumbria. At the re-
quest of Wulfhere, Chad was soon appointed by Theodore
to be Bishop of Mercia. But he had to undergo re-conse-
cration, because his former consecration was deemed un-
canonical. Of the three consecrating bishops on that
occasion, Wina was the only one in Roman orders, and the
only one, according to Bede, then to be found in the whole
of Britain. Wilfrid probably had something to do with
Chad's going to Lichfield: he would possibly be glad to
show him a kindness, and would certainly not be sorry to
get rid of one whom some might consider as the rightful
bishop of York. And when Chad submitted to re-consecra-
would be complete.
tion, his satisfaction

King Oswi appears to have been a person of easy-going

disposition, and to have fallen in with all this as readily as he
had done with the former appointment of Chad. Wilfrid
now set his whole mind on advancing the interests of Rome
in his vast diocese,which included the district of Galloway,
and other parts of Scotland, as well as our present northern
province, together with the parts of Lindsey. He employed
Eddi had skilful masons to
to teach the Gregorian tones, he
build in England as they built in Rome, and he strove to re-
cover the holy places of the British Church. Oswi soon after
died, and was succeeded by his son Egfrid, who at first

-*
*-

304 Lives of the Saints. [Octia.

helped Wilfrid by liberal contributions to his great works at

—
Ripon and elsewhere, thank-offerings for his successes
against the Pictsand the Mercians, attributed to the merits
and prayers of the man of God. It is the delight of the
chroniclers to relate how, where Wilfrid found mean struc-
tures of wood and thatch, he left noble buildings of stone,
with lead roofs and wondrous vaults. The church at York
being in a deplorable condition, he thoroughly repaired,
cleansed, and whitewashed it, as Eddi says, supra nivem de-
albavit ; and the windows were now apparently for the first
time filled with glass, instead of perforated wood or stone, or
oiled linen. At Ripon he built an entirely new basilica of
wrought stone, with goodly columns and marvellous porches,
on which Eddi descants in a most interesting way, and gives
an account of a magnificent Book of the Gospels, probably
such a one as Wilfrid had seen in S. Andrew's oratory at
Rome, most likely brought by him from Rome or Lyons,
and preserved in the minster till the Reformation as the
Textus Sandi Wilfridi. The crypt, commonly called S. Wil-
frid's needle, which still exists, probably belonged to this

church, and its curious little niches may possibly be reminis-

cences of the columbaria in the catacombs. The dedication,
honour of S. Peter, was celebrated on a
characteristically in
sumptuous scale of magnificent ritual and hospitality, with a
fitting oration, amid a great concourse of kings, abbots,

nobles, and persons of all ranks, the walls resounding with

the Gregorian chants, then the last new music from Italy.

At Hexham he built, on land given by S. Etheldreda, a

church dedicated to S. Andrew, on a corresponding scale of
grandeur, doubtless in memory of S. Andrew's in Rome (see

p. 297), and where a crypt still remains, similar to that at

Ripon, these two being the only known examples of the same
kind in England, and both, perhaps, imitations of sepulchral
chambers in Rome.

*-
 iir^lW
S. WILFRID LANDING.

-»r
Oct. 12.
 -*

Oct. 12.]
•5'. Wilfrid. 305

He is said to have wrought miracles at this period of his

hfe. On
one occasion, as he was riding about in the exer-
cise of his episcopal office, a woman brought her dead child
to him to be raised to life and baptized, which, through her
faith and the prayers and touch of the saint, at once came to

pass. The child afterwards lived and died in God's service

at Ripon, and was called the bishop's son. Then at Hexham
a youth engaged in building fell from a great height, and was
taken up with broken arms and legs, and at the point of
death. At the prayers of the saint and the brethren — the
"medici" having bound up the broken bones he recovered —
from day to day, and long lived to praise God. But Wilfrid
was never tested by too long a course of worldly prosperity
and success. Fresh trials now awaited him. S. Etheldreda,
Egfrid's queen, refused on religious grounds to live as a wife
with her husband, and the bishop, on being appealed to, sup-
ported her views, and so incurred the displeasure ol the king.
Some think he acted a double part at this time, telling Egfrid
he would do the best he could to persuade her, knowing all
the time he could not, having himself consecrated her as a
nun. But we do not know all the circumstances, and per-
haps Etheldreda ought not to have married at all. Anyhow
a divorce took place, and Egfrid married Ermenburg, who
proved to be a bitter enemy to Wilfrid. He was reproached
and envied on account of his wealth and splendour as the
second man in the kingdom, and accused of neglecting the
spiritual concerns of the see. Something ol the kind may
have come to the ear of Theodore, and may partly account
for his extraordinary treatment of Wilfrid at this time, during,
as is believed, one of his long absences from his see. Wilfrid
had never received the pall as archbishop, and so Theodore
took upon himself to subdivide the kingdom of Northumbria
into four sees —
York, Lindisfarne, Hexham, and Whitherne
in Galloway. Wilfrid was simply ignored in all this, though
VOL. XI. 20
-*
 306 Lives of the Saints. foct. «.

some say Lindisfarne was offered to him. It was not likely

that he would submit to such treatment. He remonstrated
with Theodore and Egfrid face to face, but without success,
and now he saw but one course open to him. He made the
appeal to Rome, then, for the first time, against an EngUsh
sovereign, and was met by reproaches, contumely, and deri-
sion on the part of the king and his courtiers, probably in
Witenagemote assembled. "Ah !" said Wilfrid, "ye who
now laugh at me shall a year hence bitterly weep."
His enemies, not venturing to prevent his going to Rome,
endeavoured to intercept his appeal by subtilty. They sent
a message to Theodoric, King of Neustria, to detain him on
his journey, and he, with the help of Ebroin, mayor of the
palace, sought to arrest the traveller. But they managed to
secure Winfrid, Bishop of Mercia, by mistake, he too being
on his way to Rome. Wilfrid landed in Fries! and, and so
escaped their hands. During the winter he instructed the
rude Frisians,and Adalgis, their king, in the Christian
faith. The Frisians and Saxons being the same race, and
speaking the same tongue, he had no difficulty in making
himself understood. In the spring he proceeded towards
Rome, having gained for himself the title of "Apostle of
Friesland."
On hisway he met with a most hearty welcome from
Dagobert, a French prince, who having vainly tried to de-
tain him by the offer of the see of Strasburg, sent him
on with one Bishop Deodatus for a companion, and with
rich presentsand an introduction to the King of the Lom-
bards, from whose Court he passed on to Rome. Five-and-
twenty years before he had come as the humble scholar from
Lindisfarne, now he came as one of the greatest of English
prelates. Pope Agatho, who appears to have been the very
Agatho who as a priest had assisted at the Council of Whitby,
rejoicing in this first appeal from England to Rome, called a

* »i<
 -*

oct.i».]
•5'. Wilfrid. 307

synod. Theodore had sent messengers with his version of

the story, and they had arrived before Wilfrid. Both sides
were heard, and Wilfrid triumphed at the Court of Rome as
he had done before at the little provincial convention at
Whitby. He was supplied with letters containing the syno-
dical decision, with penalties of suspension and excommuni-
cation for all who should oppose it. He was to be restored
to his see, but with coadjutor bishops. Having gained this
point, he waited to sit in a council against the Monothelites,
where he represented the English Church, though he does
not appear to have been sent for that purpose. Then he
returned to the Northumbrian Court, armed with the papal
missive. But Egfrid and Ermenburg cared little for foreign
decrees, which moreover they accused him of having ob-
tained by bribery. The queen, we are told, tore his reli-

quary from his neck, to wear as a toy or a charm, and Wilfrid

was cast into prison. Here it is pretended that he was
able to heal the governor's wife of a terrible disease, by the
application of holy water. Her husband would now no
longer act as jailer to the holy man, whereupon the king
sent him to another prison at Dunbar. There his fetters and
manacles dropped oif as fast as they were put on. Mean-
while, the queen was afflicted with madness, wherefore the
king, advised by the abbess Ebba, restored the relics, and
set Wilfrid at liberty. Thereupon the queen recovered.
Wilfrid, however, was not permitted to return to his see he ;

had made himself many enemies, and was obliged to flee, first
to Mercia and then to Sussex. There he met with a royal
patron in Ethelwalch, King of the South Saxons, who was a
Christian, though most of his people were heathens. There
was, however, a little monastery at Bosham, with five or six
inmates, which one Dicul, a Scot, had founded. When
Wilfrid came there, in time of terrible drought and famine,
the people were throwing themselves oft" the cliffs into the sea

-*
1^ —>h

308 Lwes of the Saints [oct 12.

to escape death by starvation. By his prayers he obtained

rain, and by teaching the rude men of Sussex how to use
their eel-nets in the sea, he obtained draughts of fishes which
were regarded as miraculous. The king converted his own
palace into a residence for Wilfrid, and gave him an estate at
Selsea. There he freed two hundred and fifty serfs, and
founded a monastery, over which he presided for five years.
He also converted Cadwalla, King of Wessex, who gave him
the fourth part of the Isle of Wight, and the bishopric of

Wessex. Wilfrid was thus driven from the North only to do

a great work in the South. This success could not remain
long unknown to Theodore, who now, being nearly ninety
years old, sought and obtained a happy reconciliation with
him who was supported by Rome. He had, moreover, re-
ceived a rescript from Pope Sergius which induced him to
effect this without delay. He wrote letters, expressing the
pope's and his own decision in favour of Wilfrid, to the
kings of Mercia and Northumbria. The former, Ethelred,
gave him lands, monasteries, and episcopal jurisdiction in

his kingdom. Egfrid was killed in battle about this time,

and Ermenburg, if still alive, in no position to oppose
was
Wilfrid. Indeed, she is have been converted by
said to
the Roman faction, and to have ended her days in a monas-
tery. Aldfrid, an illegitimate son of Oswi, succeeded Egfrid,

and one of his first acts was to send for Wilfrid, and re-instate
him at York and Ripon. There, however, his unsubdued
pride, greed of power, and wealth, brought him into collision
with the great men of his diocese and all who had peace at
heart. Aldfrid, for the sake of peace, asked him to resign
Ripon, which he refused to do, whereupon a serious dis-
ruption occurred, and about five years after his restoration
he had to flee to Mercia from the resentment of those
whose hostility he had provoked. There he induced Ethel-
red, the king, to become a monk, and effected the founda-

* —
 -*

octx..] 'S'. Wilfrid. 309

tion of many churches and monasteries. Theodore mean-

while had died, and was succeeded by Berthwald in the
southern primacy. This prelate, in conjunction with Ald-
frid, called a great synod of English bishops at Austerfield
Plain, near Bawtry,^ about nine years after the above quarrel,
and Wilfrid was present, either by invitation or summons.
Being asked whether he would abide by the decision of the
metropolitan, he warily avoided binding himself too far, by
saying he would, provided it were conformable to the decrees
of the Apostolic See.
Aldfrid was exasperated, and great clamour and confusion
ensued. Wilfrid broke out into indignant expostulations.
Some would have thrown him into prison, others were pre-
pared to him the monastery of Ripon provided he would
offer

confine himself within its precincts, and resign all episcopal

authority. This was too much. Would they degrade him
from his bishopric, after all that he had done for the North
of England from his youth up until that hour, and on false
accusations too ? Let them come with him to Rome, and
prove before the sovereign pontiff the charges they brought
against him. Whereupon the king and archbishop pro-
nounced him self-condemned, judgment of
in preferring the
Rome to that of themselves. Being now above sixty years
old, he set off on his third and last journey to Rome, attended
by his faithful Eddi and other friends. On his arrival he
again found his accusers there before him, but their stories
were not listened to until he appeared. The points in dis-
pute were then debated in a series of meetings held under
Pope John VI., during a space of about four months. The
Pope Agatho and its results were recalled,
previous appeal to

'
Nosterfield, near Ripon, has generally been supposed to have been the place.
But the words used by Eddi are Estrefclda and Sivinaivath (or fatii). Two miles
south-west of Austerfield is " S winnow Wood." South-east is Swinecar Road.
Moreover, a general synod of the English Church would probably be held on the
marches of North umbria and Mercia, and not near the centre of Northumbria.

-*
 310 Lives of the Saints. foct. 12.

when the minutes of the former synod were read. Wilfrid

was again acquitted of all blame, and was to be restored to
his see. Papal letters to this effect were written to Ethelred,
King of Mercia, as well as to Aldfrid, and Archbishop
Berthwald was directed to call a council for the adjustment
of difficulties. Wilfrid, however, seems to have lost heart
about England ; he stayed in Rome many months, and wished
toend his days there. But Pope John and others counselled
him to return to his native land, and die, if so he might, at
his post, combating the liberties of the national Church.
Accordingly, with the letters just mentioned, and with an-
other supply of relics, he turned homeward. On his way he
fell sick, and was borne on a litter as far as Meaux, where for
and apparently at the point
four days he lay as in a trance,
of death. At the dawning of the fifth day his biographer
pretends that S. Michael appeared to him, and told him he
was sent by the Blessed Virgin to say that his life should be
prolonged four years, and that as he had built churches in
honour of S. Peter and S. Andrew, so he ought to have
dedicated one to the Blessed Mother of God, promising
moreover to visit him again at the end of four years. He
told the heavenly vision to Acca the priest, then rose like
a second Hezekiah, washed and took food, and made haste
on his way. The ^^^nd was favourable, they soon crossed
the sea, and landed in Kent, where they found Berthwald,
and had a friendly interview. Thence they proceeded to the
Mercian Court, where they were kindly received by Ccenred,
the nephew of Ethelred, the former king. Thence they sent
messengers to Aldfrid, who appointed a day for meeting
them, but showed himself as ill disposed as before to receive
Wilfrid and bear with his imperiousness. Soon after Ald-
frid lay on his death-bed, probably at Driffield, in the East
Riding of Yorkshire. Eadulf, his successor, was still more
hostile, threatening to slay Wilfrid and his friends if they did

^ ^
Oct. I..]
'S'. Wilfrid. 311

not leave the kingdom within six days. He, however, was
deposed as a usurper, and Osred, the son of Aldfrid, and
adopted son of Wilfrid, became king when but eight years
old, with Berchtfrid, the confidential minister of Aldfrid, as
protector. Wilfrid was thus again in the ascendant, and the
synod which Pope John had provided was held on the
for
banks of the Nidd, under Archbishop Berthwald, with the
three northern bishops of York, Lindisfarne, and Whitherne.
Elfleda, the sainted abbess of Whitby, and Berchtfrid, were
also there. Berthwald gave a summary of the letters of the
Pope for the benefit of the British bishops and others who
could not well follow the Latin, not improbably, also, soften-
ing down some expressions in his desire for peace. But the
bishops were not at first willing to make way for Wilfrid
against the interests of the Northumbrian Church, even at
the risk of papal excommunication. They appealed to Berth-
wald's own previous policy, to the example of Theodore, to
the decisions of Egfrid and Aldfrid. Elfleda then asserted
that Aldfrid on his death-bed had promised that, if his life were
spared, he would restore Wilfrid. Berchtfrid told of a similar
vow, urging moreover his present master's wish to the same
eflfect, and at last a compromise was arrived at. Wilfrid had
the monasteries of Ripon and Hexham restored to him, and
was apparently satisfied for now the old spirit was broken
:

by trouble and infirmit}', and he was no longer the man he

had been. He was only too thankful that they could all part,
as they did, with the kiss of peace, and walk in the house of
God as friends. As Eddi beautifully writes "Ilia die omnes :

episcopi se invicem osculantes et amplexantes, panemque

frangentes, communicaverunt, et gratias agentes Deo omnis
^
hujus beatitudinis, in pace Christi ad sua loca remearunt."
But Wilfrid was not to know much more happiness here
on earth. He brooded over the troubled and divided state
' See Life of S. Elfleda, Feb. 8
lit *
312 Lives of tlie Saints. [Oct. is.

of the Church, and the desolate condition of the monasteries

he had founded. He felt almost certified how long he had
to live, that his work was well-nigh done, and it was with
feelings of resignation rather than of triumph that he re-
ceived his own again at Hexham and Ripon. He was once
more attacked by the sickness which had overtaken him at
—
Meaux probably low fever, brought on by over-exertion
and want of rest telling on an enfeebled frame. But at the
earnest prayers of the brethren, this was again removed. At
Ripon he disposed of his worldly goods, which he divided
into four portions —
one for Rome, one for the poor, one for
Kipon and Hexham, and one for his friends Tatbercht, his :

kinsman, he made president of the monastery at Ripon.

Then he thought he felt well enough to go and die at Rome,
taking Mercia on his way, whither he had been invited by
Coenred, the king, to inspect the monasteries. Looking for-

ward to ending his days at Rome, he could thank God and

take courage. Instinct told him, perhaps, that it was hardly
well for him to end his career in the midst of a Church which
he had filled with bitterness and discord by his pride and
partizanship. He must die with his face set towards Rome,
to which he had turned through life.

Having passed through Yorkshire, he reached the Humber,

and crossed that " broad sea stream ;" then, landing at
Winteringham, he passed along the Roman road by Lin-
coln and Stamford to the monastery he had dedicated to
S. Andrew at Oundle. There the old sickness again overtook
him, and he felt that the time spoken of by S. Michael was
now at hand. Having given his blessing to the weeping
brethren, he calmly turned his head to the pillow, and, as he
lay, listened to the voices in the adjacent choir. Just as they
were singing "Emittes Spiritum Tuum, et creabuntur, et re-
novabis faciem terrae," the man of strife quietly fell asleep, in
the seventy-fifth year of his age and the forty-sixth of his

*
OCL 12.
 -^

oct.xa.] ^- Wilfrid. 313

pontificate, October 12, a.d. 709.^ His office says "that death
by which he entered Lord was not death,
into the joy of his
but sleep, the gate of death was to him but the gate of Hfe
immortal. Nor did death conquer him ; rather was it swal-
lowed up in victory —
Abiit ergo, non obitt.'
' Nor was his
light quenched it still lightens all that are of the household
:

of God. Therefore was death to him but a short sleep, that

he might pass into the inheritance of the sons of God, as it
is written, 'So He giveth His beloved sleep.'
"^

Wonderful singing of unseen birds was heard as his spirit

passed away, and there were some who thought it was the
welcome of the angels. When they had washed the body
over the sindon of an abbot, they clothed it in pontifical
garments, laid it on a bier, and carried it to Ripon with
psalms and canticles. Here, amid a great concourse of
people, they buried it in the church which he had built, on
the south side of the altar, with a long epitaph over him,
which is preserved by Bede. The sindon, somewhat soiled
by the feet of those who had washed the body, was sent to a
certain abbess, who reverently cleansed it, and a nun who was
paralyticbegged that she might wash in the water, trusting
in the Lord that she should receive health. No sooner had
she dipped her hand into the water, and touched the sheet,
than her fingers, which had been like dry sticks, recovered
their suppleness and life. Robbers tried to fire the holy
house at Oundle where he had died, but the fire forgot its
own nature, say the chroniclers, and leaped back from the
thatched roof. Nor would it burn any nearer to the house
than a wooden cross which had been erected where they
poured out the water at the washing of the body. The
robbers were terrified by a vision of an angel in white holding

' The day would fall on a Saturday in that year, and the psalm in which the text
occurs is one of those sung on Saturday at Matins.
' In octava S. Wilfridi, Lectio i"".

-*
*-

314 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.12.

a cross, and some were struck with blindness. At the

anniversary of his death, a light was seen over Ripon min-
ster, about the time of compline, in form like a rainbow, but
all of pearly white, and like the rainbow accepted as a sign
that God would not forsake His people. Miracles were sup-
posed to have been wrought at his reputed tombs, but not
nearly so many
as were attributed to some later saints.
There issame uncertainty as to where his bones actually
the
rest as there has been with respect to those of S. Cuthbert
and S. Bede at Durham, and bodies of distinguished persons
in other places. One set of chroniclers, at the head of
whom stands Eadmer the monk of Canterbury, say that
S. Wilfrid's bones were translated thither. According to his
account, this was done by Archbishop Odo, who visiting
Ripon in the loth century and finding the church desolated
by the Danes, forsaken by men and defiled by beasts,
opened the grave of S. Wilfrid, and taking away his bones,
placed them within the high altar at Canterbury, consider-
ately leaving the dust for Ripon. An anonymous chronicler
of Jervaux, quoted by Leland (Coll. i. 216), gives Dunstan
the credit of this translation. It is stated by Eadmer that
Lanfranc afterwards enshrined the relics on the north side
of the altar ; ^ and some think they rest at Canterbury still.

The North-country tradition is that the remains of Wilfrid the

Second were removed by mistake, and that those of the saint
remained in the grave on the south side of the altar until
translated by Archbishop Oswald to the north side, and
there enshrined. That they were placed in a richer shrine
by Archbishop Gray in 1224, the head being kept separately
in a case of gold. Be this as it may, the Ripon people
firmly believed all through the Middle Ages that their saint's
bones were still in their midst, while the Canterbury folk

'
In a sermon of Eadmer there is reference to visions and wonderful sounds heard
in connection with Wilfrid's tomb at Canterbury.

*-
 -^

Oct. 12.]
'S'. Wilfrid. 315

maintained that Wilfrid's bones were as surely there as were

own S. Thomas. The acts of archbishops
those of their
Oswald and Walter Gray just mentioned formed subjects of
lections for the feast of the Translation.
The known connection of the saint with the church of
Ripon during and the beUef
that most of his bones'
life,

were there, proved a source of fame and wealth in the

Middle Ages. It was one of the four mother churches of the
Northern Province, the others being York, Beverley, and
Southwell. Special privileges of sanctuary, and the right of
using the ordeal, were supposed to have been granted by
Athelstane. " S. Wilfrid's burning iron " and the " Pok-
stane" are constantly mentioned in the fabric-rolls as
sources of income, being used against murrain and other
diseases of cattle on payment of a fee. The proceeds
diminished greatly during the few years preceding the Re-
formation, as was the case with S. Cuthbert's shrine at Dur-
ham, and doubtless with others. The Ripon roll of 1540
records the abolition of the burning iron, which was perhaps
the identical instrument which had been previously used in
the ordeal by fire, and which may have been supposed to
retain supernatural efficacy of a different kind. S. Wilfrid's

banner, like that of S. Cuthbert and others, was carried to

the wars. The chroniclers Richard and John of Hexham
mention its being hung on the " standard " at the battle of
Northallerton, a.d. 1158, with those of S. Peter and S. John
of Beverley. Twysden (-' Decem Scriptores," p. 339) gives
representations of the standard copied from a MS. in Corpus
Christi College Library at Cambridge, but they do not
show any characteristic devices. The " arms " attributed to

S. Wilfrid in the Middle Ages were, Az. three estoils or.

'
York, claimed to possess not only two of his EvangcHsteria, richly adorned with
gold and silver (Ripon, as we have seen, had a Textns S Wilfyidi), but one of his
arms, in a silver case. Archbishop Gray found not even one of the smallest bones
missing ; perhaps he acquired the arm for York.

-*
316 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 12.

Many churches were dedicated to him, but, strange to say,

none in Sussex, where his labours have not been thus re-

cognized until our own day. His name is written in letters

of gold in the Durham Liber Vitce. Some writings have
been ascribed to him, but on very doubtful authority. He
was of too restless a disposition to sit down and write books,
or to give himself to study after hehad once become involved
in the hurry and excitement of such a life as his was.
If we now briefly review the history of his career in refer-

ence to his character,tastes, and disposition, we may observe

that from his very boyhood he showed a strange power of

fascination over the hearts of men, making friends wherever
he went. But when he had attained to manhood, his inde-
pendence and force of character, his haughtiness and violence
of temper, generally brought him into collision sooner or later
with those whose friendship he had gained. He seems to
have been easily turned for a time from any project he had in
hand, if he saw an immediate opportunity of work for Rome,
and though impetuous and undaunted by nature, he knew
when to bide his time, and when he had gained a point was
not always impatient to establish it. He lived in stormy
times, and had to adapt himself to circumstances of which we
can form no true conception. He was, no doubt, a courtier,
ever managing to keep right, if possible, with kings and
popes and other great people. The Church was often
reminded of this on his festivals by the antiphon '^ Magfiifi-
cavit eum in conspectu regmn, et dedit illi coronam gloriceT
Some have accused him of duplicity and of unworthy ambi-
tion, possibly unfairly. There are such things as moral
statecraft and sectarian ambition. These as a rule seem to
have characterized Wilfrid's proceedings. He certainly had
an active and at the same time orderly frame of mind, which
could find satisfaction in nothing short of the discipline of
Rome, which to the best informed minds of that day seemed,
 -*

6". Wilfrid.
Oct 12.] 317

as it probably was, the nearest approach to earthly per-

fection. He was energetic and persevering in all that he
undertook, and " everything he took in hand was attuned
to the lofty tone of a dignified and philosophical mind, far
in advance of the age in which he lived." ^ Blame certainly
attaches to him for having stood out so long against the
division of his enormous see, caring only for his own interests,
and utterly disregarding in the matter the welfare of religion
in the vast diocese which he could not possibly govern single
handed. His remarkable love of official pomp and splen-
dour was combined, as has so often been the case, with the
practice of the strictest personal austerities. While affecting
an exaggerated austerity, he delighted in lavish and even
royal pomp, dazzling the nobles whom he dehghted in
browbeating. His tastes were unquestionably refined and
enlarged by his visits to Rome and Lyons and elsewhere,
and we have seen how he delighted to introduce into the
rude North-country of his birth such glorious buildings, such
sumptuous ornaments and books, such august and solemn
ritualand music, and may we not add, such sweetly sound-
ing bells, as he had become acquainted with in Southern
Europe. As a young man, he is described by his friend
Eddi as " courteous to everybody, physically active, a quick
walker, ready for every good work, never of a sad coun-
tenance," and of his earliest years we have already spoken on
the same authority. Beautiful in childhood, comely in youth,
doubtless he was noble-looking in manhood, and venerable
in old age. In art, he is represented as a bishop or arch-
bishop, som.etimes holding a book, sometimes with a ruined
tower in the distance, or with a ship, or with no distinguish-
ing emblem at all. The tower may refer to his restorations

of ruined minsters, the ship to his adventure on the Sussex

coast (p. 308). In the Galilee at Durham was "the picture
' Walbran, " S. Wilfrid and the Saxon Church of Ripon." A paper read in 1858.

*
 318 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. n.

of Wilfridus, Bishop, in fyne couloured glasse, as he was

accustomed to say masse, with his myter on his head and
his crosier staffe in his lefte hand, under whose feet is [was]
written '
Sanctus Wilfridus, prima Lindisfarnensis Monachus,
post Abbas Ripensis, ultimo Archiepiscopus Eboracensis, uno
afi}J0 rexit episcopatum Lindisfar7iensem'' ("Rites of Dur-
ham"). In York Minster, Methley Church, and doubtless in
many other places, he appeared associated with SS. Gregory,
Augustine, and Paulinus. The feast of his translation was
observed in the northern province on the 24th of April, and
that of his "deposition," or burial, on the 12th of October,
both of which days occur in the York Calendar. Within the
parish of Ripon, the feast of his nativity was kept in addition
to these, as aDouble of the first-class, on the Sunday next
after S. Peterad Vincula, or Lammas Day, still known as
Wilfrid Sunday. The eve of this day, once ushered in by
the antiphon, ^^
Laudes vespertinas, bone Jesu, suscipe, et boni

festum celebrantes Wilfridi, ab omni noxa custodi,^' is at pre-

sent marked by a rude pageant, in which low buffoonery is
the most harmless feature. The name of S. Wilfrid occurs
in the Hereford Calendar on the 12th of October, but not
at all in Sarum or Aberdeen. In the modern Officia Propria
for Roman Catholics in England and Ireland, the 12th of

October, on which day he is mentioned in the Roman Mar-

tyrology, is provided for as a Double, with the old York
Collect and three proper lections.'

1 This biography is from the pen of the Rev. J. T. Fowler, Vice-Principal of Bishop
Hatfield's Hall, Durham. I have not, however, scrupled to make some alterations,

as I could not assent to the favourable view he maintains of the character of the
Saint.

^ ,J,
•J*- -^

Oct. 13.]
6". Carpus. 319

October 13.

S. Carpus, Disc. ofS. Paul at Troas ; isi cent.

S.Thkophilus, B. of Antioch in Syria; circ. A.D. i8i.
SS. Faustus, Januarius, and Martialis, MM. at Cordova;
circ. 310.
S. Florentius, M. at Thessalonica ; ^th cent.
S. LuBENTlus, P.C. at Cobem on the Moselle; ^th cent.
S. Venantius, Ab. of Tours; end of sth cent.
SS. Fyncana AND Findocha, F^. in Scotland; Ztk cent.
S. CoNGAN, Ab. in Scotland ; Zt/i cent.
S. SiMPERT, B. of Augsbu7-g; a.d. 809.
S. Gerald, Count, C. at Anrillac in Auvergne ; circ. A.D. 909.
S. CoLMAN, M. in Austria ; a.d. 1012.
S. Edward the Confessor, A', at Westtninster ; a.d. 1066.
S. Luke, Ab. at Armento in Calabria; a.d. 1193.
SS. Seven Franciscans, MM. in Morocco; a.d. 1221.

S. CARPUS.
(iST CENT.)

[Ancient Roman Martyrology. Ado, Usuardus, Notker, and Modern

Roman Martyrology.]

ARPUS was a Christian at Troas, with whom

S. Paul states that he left a cloak,^ which he re-
quests him to bring with him when he visits

him. According to Hippolytus and the Paschal

Chronicle, Carpus was bishop of Bersea in Thrace, and he is

commemorated as such in the Greek Church on May 26.

The Greek Mentea and Menology on this day commemo-
rate another Carpus, Bishop of Thyatira, who is mentioned
in the Roman Martyrology on April 13.

' 2 Tim. iv. 13.

^- -^
^-

320 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 13.

S. THEOPHILUS, B. OF ANTIOCH.
(about a.d. 181.)

[The "Mart. Parvum," Ado, Usuardus, Notker, and other Latin

artyrologies, the Modem Roman Martyrology. Authorities : — Euseb.,
"Hist. Eccl.," iv. c. 24; S. Jerome, " Catal. Script. Eccl.," c. 25.]

Theophilus was brought up in the darkness of paganism,

and he only learned the doctrines of Christianity by reading
the sacred Scriptures for the purpose of combating them.
But the study of these books, and especially of the Prophets,
convinced him of the truth of Christianity.^ We know no
details of his career till the year 168, when Eros, fifth bishop
of Antioch, died, when Theophilus was elected in his room.
Eusebius says " There are three books containing the ele-
:

ments of the faith, addressed to Autolycus, which are

ascribed to Theophilus, whom we have mentioned as Bishop
of Antioch. Another also, which has the title, '
Against the
heresy of Hermogenes,' in which he uses testimony from the
Revelation of John, and also some catechetical works. And
as the heretics, no less then than at any other time, were
like tares destroying the pure seed of apostolic doctrines,
the pastors of the churches ever)rwhere hastened to restrain
them as wild beasts from ravaging the fold of Christ. Some-

times they did it by their exhortations and admonitions to

the brethren, sometimes more openly contending with the
and refutations, and
heretics themselves, in oral discussions
then again confuting them in written works. Theophilus,
therefore, ^vith others, also contended against these, as is

manifest from a work of no mean character, Avritten by him

against Marcion, which together with the others we have
mentioned, is still preserved. He was succeeded by Maxi-
'
Ad Autol., i. 14.

*-
 —

Oct. 13.] <S' FatistMs and Others. 321

minus, the seventh from the apostles in the church of

Antioch."
It is uncertain how long he reigned: according to
Eusebius, eight years, but according to others twelve or
thirteen. The latter supposition is the most probable ; for
hiswork addressed to Autolycus was certainly written after
the death of Marcus Aurelius, consequently after a.d. 180.
The three books to Autolycus have alone survived.

SS. FAUSTUS, JANUARIUS, AND MARTIALIS, M.M.

(about a.d. 310.)

[Ado on Nov. 9 and Sept. 28. Usuardus on Oct. 13, so also the
Modem Roman Martyrology. Maurolycus, Greven, Molanus, and
others on Sept. 28. The Spanish Martyrologies on Oct. 13. Authority :

The Acts which are trustworthy.]

Faustus, Januarius, and Martial, three Christians of Cor-

dova, were brought before the governor Eulogius, and when
they refused to sacrifice were slung on the " little horse," but
without the pain shaking their confidence and faith. Eulogius
then ordered the ears and noses of Faustus and Januarius to
be cut off, and as they remained steadfast, the three martyrs
were consumed by fire. The "invention" of their relics
took place in the year 1575. The church of S. Peter in
Cordova was being repaired, when a stone sarcophagus was
dug up containing bones and skulls of eighteen bodies.
Popular opinion at once concluded that these were the
bodies of the three martyrs, with some extra sufferers.

This pious conjecture was affirmed to be true by a papal

bull of Gregory XIII.

VOL. XI.
*-
^ — ->J<

322 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 13

S. FLORENTIUS, M.
(4TH CENT.)

[Greek Mensa and Menologies, Introduced by Baronius into the

Modem Roman Martyrology. Authority : —Mention in the Menaea.]
Florentius of Thessalonica, a very zealous Christian, was
hung on the " Httle horse," and his sides torn with iron rakes ;

then, more dead than alive, he was cast into a burning pile
of wood and consumed.

S. LUBENTIUS, P.C.

(latter part of 4TH CENT.)

[Venerated in the diocese of Treves, and specially at Cobem on the

Moselle. Authority : — A Life by an anonymous writer, and of uncertain
date, in the passionale of the monastery of Arnstein.]

S. LuBENTius was given by his parents when a little child,

to S. Martin at Tours, and was by him baptized and adopted
as his son. He was afterwards committed to S. Maximinus,
Bishop of Treves, to be by him educated for holy orders,

and when Lubentius had reached a suitable age, Maximinus

ordained him priest.
Maximinus died in 349 when visiting his relatives in
Aquitain, and his successor, S. Paulinus, ordered Lubentius
to proceed to Aquitain and recover the body of the bishop.
He seems to have been ignorant of the whereabouts of the
place where Maximinus was buried, and as Aquitain was a
large district, he rambled about it in great uncertainty. One
day, however, he heard a shepherd boy swear at n, straying
sheep that he would rattle his stick about its sides, *' By

4, ^
Oct. 13.]
'5'. Lubentius. 323

Maximin I will, if you leave the flock again !

" TAibentius
rushed upon the young shepherd and insisted on being told
where lay the body of the Maximin by whom he swore. The
lad indicated the nearest church.
Lubentius said nothing more on the matter, lest he should
excite suspicion, but he and his companions in the night got
into the room of the sleeping custodian, stole the church
keys, unlocked the doors, made off with thedead body, and
conveyed it safely to Treves. Having accomplished this
task, he returned to his pastoral charge at Cobern on the
Mdselle, where he died in the odour of sanctity.
Wlien he was dead, the people of Cobern, delighted at the
prospect of having the body of a saint in their church, pro-
ceeded to the house and endeavoured to remove the body.
But no. The dead man lay immovable. Nothing could
persuade him to stir an inch. The people prayed, but he
remained inflexible. Then they got angry, and would have
fallen on the corpse and battered it, had not a certain
reverend man interposed and advised that the body should
be placed in a boat and allowed to float up or down the

Moselle as it and pick its own place of burial.

liked,

This was done. Below the town the banks were lined
with people, excited, eager, hoping the boat would ground
at their respective villages. But no it drifted on with the
;

dead man in it, past Winningen, Moselweis, and did not even
rest at Coblenz. But now, marvellous to relate, the skiff,
instead of descending the Rhine, when it had entered that
river, headed upand attracted by the beauties of the
it,

Lahn, the dead Lubentius steered up that rapid river. Ems

was unsuitable. Nassau, a lovely green meadow between
rocks covered with birch and beech, did not arrest it. Diez,
one day to be crowned by a picturesque castle Limburg ;

rock, which a cathedral would surmount with seven spires,

was refused ; and when the scenery was dull, and the hills
>J< *
324 Lives of the Saints. toa. 13

fell away, theskift" grounded before the solitary rock of Diet-

kirchen and there Lubentius lies at this present day. Such

;

is the romantic legend which takes the place of probably a

very prosaic translation.

SS. FYNCANA AND FINDOCHA, VV.

(8th cent.)

[Aberdeen Breviary. In the Scottish Menology of David Camerarius

S. Fyncana on Aug. 21, and S. Findocha on May 31.]

The Aberdeen Breviary says that Fyncana and Findoch

died respectively in 526 and 716. But Hector Boece says
that they were daughters of S. Donevald, or Donald (July 12),
who, with his nine daughters, is said by local tradition to
have led a religious life in the glen of Ogilvy, in Forfarshire,

where they are still remembered as the Nine Maidens. After

his death they are said to have gone to Abernethy. Boece,
however, makes only seven maidens. The church of Finaven
was dedicated Nine Maidens, so also was Strath-
to the
martin. There is a Nine Maiden Well there, and in the

park at Glamis. But there were other nine maidens

—
brought over by S. Bridget chief of whom was S. Mazota
—
(Dec. 23) who are often confounded with the daughters
of S. Donald.
In the Breviary of Aberdeen is a note or rubric that
Fyncana was venerated at Echt in the diocese of Aberdeen,
and Findocha at the archidiaconate of the diocese of Dun-
blane, thisis probably Findo-Gask. At Bendochy, near
Cupar Angus, there was anciently a chapel at S. Phink, de-
dicated to that saint ; a small part of the ruins remain.

ij,,
— ^>J<
 oct.r3.j 'S". Congan. 325

S. CONGAN, AB.

(8th cent.)

[Aberdeen Breviary. Tamlacht and Donegal Martyrologies on Aug.

2, as S. Comgan or Coemgen. But this cannot be the same as the
Scottish S. Congan.]

S. Congan, more correctly Comgan, brother of S. Kenti-

gerna and uncle of S. Fillan, was the son of a prince of
Leinster, and was in youth trained as a soldier. On suc-
ceeding his father, he governed his dominions with prudence
and rectitude ; but, on being attacked by his neighbours, he
was conquered, and obliged to fly, wounded in the foot by
an arrow. His sister Kentigerna was married to Feradach,
Prince of Monchestree. According to Irish accounts Con-
gan was the son of Ceallach Cualann (d. 715), Prince of
Leinster, and who possessed
forefather of the O'Kellys,
Rathdown in the county of Dublin till the 14th century.
The expulsion of Congan from his kingdom led also to that
of his sister and her sons. Accordingly Congan, with Kenti-
gerna and her son Fillan,^ and seven clerks, betook them-
selves to Lochelch in Northern Argyle, where they led a
severe life. After the death of his uncle, S. Fillan built a
church in his honour, and buried him in lona. There are
in the neighbourhood of Lochelch two churches, Kilchoan
(Congan) and Killellan (Fillan), which bear record to the
truth of this story.

'
The Aberdeen Breviary makes her the mother of Fillan, Furzey, and Ultan, but
SS. Furzey and Ultan were sons of Finnloga, Prince of South Munster, by Gelges,
daughter of Adhfinn, Prince of Hy-Brinn in Connaught. Fillan, or Foilan, was
brother of S. Furzey, but this was not the same Fillan as the son of S. Kentigerna.

* ^)J<
 326 Lives of the Saints. [Oci. 13.

S. SIMPERT, B. OF AUGSBURG.
(a.d. 809.)

[Roman and German Martyrologies. Canonized by Pope Nicolas V.

in 1450. Authorities : —A life by Adalbert, Prior of S. Ulrich's, Augs-
burg, A.D. 1240.]

S. SiMPERT, or Sindebert, was a nephew of Charles the

Great, according to some modern authors, but no good
grounds for such a statement can be produced. He spent
his early life abbey of Murbach, near Colmar, and on
in the

the death of Tasso, Bishop of Augsburg, in 778, Charle-

magne selected him to be his successor. After the death of
Abbot Amicho of Murbach he was elected abbot in his
room, so that he ruled at the same time an extensive diocese
and an important monastery. He rebuilt the church of
S. Afra at Augsburg, and greatly benefited by endowments

the abbey of Fiissen.

S. COLMAN, M.
(a.d. 1012.)

[Gennan Martyrologies. Authority :— A Passion by Ercenfried, Abbot

of Molk, d. 1 163.]

In IOI2, when Henry I. was Emperor of Germany, a

Scottish or Irish pilgrim travelled through Austria on his
way to the Holy Land. His name, he said, was Colman.
Ignorant of the language, he created suspicion among the
peasants, and was dragged before a magistrate on the
charge of being a spy. The poor fellow was unable to ex-
plain in German what he was and whence he came, and his
silence was regarded as all the more suspicious. The judge

^ -^
 -*

Oct. 13.] S. Edward the Confessor. 327

ordered him to be racked till he confessed, but the rack

would not teach him German, and a smith was allowed to
wrench off pieces of his flesh with hot pincers. He was then
hung with a couple of malefactors. Some miracles being
supposed to be wrought by his dead body, he was as hastily
concluded to be a saint as he had before been regarded as a
spy, and lively imaginations setting to work on the theme,
transformed him into a Scottish prince, son of Malcolm III.
and Margaret. Scottish historians are of course profoundly
ignorant of this.

The place of the martyrdom of Colman was Stockerau.

The body was afterwards translated to and enshrined at
Molk. Various indulgences have been granted by Paschal
II., Clement VI., Innocent IV., and Leo X. to those vene-
rating the relics.

S. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, K.

(a.u. 1066.)

[Canonized by Alexander III. in Ii6l, and the festival appointed for

Jan. 5.In 1163 the body was translated, on Oct. 13; on which day
his principal festival is now kept. Anational council at Oxford in 1222
commanded his festival to be kept throughout England as a holiday.
Authorities : (i) A life by Aelred of Rievaulx, d. 1166.
— (2) A second
written before 1074, pub. by H. R. Ward, in " Rer. Britann. Med.
life

Aevi Script." iii. (3) " La Estoire de Seint Edward le Rey," an old
French epic poem, written by a monk of Westminster in 1245. (4) The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. (5) Florence of Worcester, d. 11 18. (6)
William of Malmesbury, d. 1 143. (7) Ordericus Vitalis, d. 1 144. (8)
An Icelandic Jatvarthar Saga, pub. Copenhagen, 1852. (9) "Encomium
Emmse," by a contemp. writer; &c.]

On the death of Ethelred II. in 1016, many of the English,

wearied with the incessant conflict with the Danes, resolved
to elect Cnut, or Canute as he is commonly called, king of
the English. But those who remained faithful to the old

-*
 328 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 13.

house of the Saxon princes held an election in London, and

chose Edmund, son of Ethelred, in his room, and he was
crowned in the cathedral of S. Paul's by Archbishop Lyving.
Canute held Wessex, which now included the whole of
England south of the Thames, but on an uncertain tenure, as
the gallant Edmund entered Wessex, and defeated the Danes
at Pen Selwood. Canute besieged London, but Edmund
again defeated him, at Brentford.
Edmund died, after a glorious reign of seven months, on
S. Andrew's day, leaving behind him two sons, Edmund and
Edward. Of his brothers three at least were living, Edwy,
son of Ethelred the Unready, by his first wife, and Alfred
and Edward, the sons of Emma of Normandy.
On the death of Edmund Ironside, Canute established
himself without resistance over the whole realm. Alfred and
Edward, sons of Ethelred and Emma, escaped with their
mother to Normandy, and the two sons of Edmund, Edward
and Edmund, were sent by Canute to King Olaf of Sweden,
who sent them into Hungary to S. Stephen, that they might
be beyond the reach of Canute, who desired their deaths, and
had requested Olaf to destroy them. Edmund died young,
but Edward lived, and eventually married Agnes, niece of
Gisela, wife of S. Stephen.
In 10 1 7 Canute sent over to Normandy for Queen Emma,
widow of Ethelred, and married her. She must have been
somewhat advanced in life, for it was fifteen years since her
marriage with Ethelred, and Canute was a young man, only
twenty-two. Queen Emma is said to have made Canute
promise that he would leave the crown to one of her chil-

dren by him, should she have any through her second mar-
riage. Edmund and Edward, her sons by Ethelred, re-

mained Normandy under the care of Duke Richard. In

in
1026 Richard of Normandy died, and his successor, Richard
III., died very soon after. Then, in 1028, Robert, the

* *
 -<^

Oct. 13.] '^- Edward the Confessor. 329

younger son of Richard II., succeeded his brother. He was

the father of William the Conqueror. The Norman writers
inform us that he meditated doing something to advance the
claims of his cousins to the throne of England, and that he
sent a fleet against Canute, but that it was driven back by
contrary winds, and some of the ships were wrecked.
Emma, now queen of the English for the second time,
had become the mother of two children by Canute, Harda-
canute and Gunhilda. Canute died in 1035, at the age of
forty, and was succeeded by his son Harold, by Elgiva,

daughter of Earl Alfhelm. Harold took the kingdom north

of the Thames, whilst the south was relinquished to Harda-
canute. The latter, however, was in Denmark, of which he
was king, and during his absence his dominions in the south
of England were governed by his mother Emma and Earl
Godwin. Godwin was a very remarkable man risen appa- :

rently from obscurity, he forced hisway by his abilities to a

position of the highest trust and power. Very early in the
reign of Canute he was made an earl, and shortly after Earl
of all Wessex, and viceroy when Canute was out of England.
When Canute died, Godwin remained Earl of the West
Saxons under Hardacanute, Harold, and Edward.
In the year 1036 Alfred, the eldest of the surviving chil-

dren of Ethelred, was murdered, and the name of Godwin

in the foul deed. The story is told variously.
was implicated
Though Hardacanute had been made king over part of
England, he stayed in Denmark, and great discontent was
felt in Wessex at his not visiting his dominions. It was
most likely this which induced Alfred, son of Ethelred and
Emma, to leave Normandy and venture into England. He
hoped to profit by this discontent, and secure for himself the
crown of Wessex. It does not appear that either Emma or
Earl Godwin, or any one else, invited him, but it is quite
certain that he came over, bringing with him a good many

-*
^ ,J,

330 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 13.

Norman followers. It is uncertain whether he met his mother

or not. According to some accounts she was exasperated at
his intrusion ; and, in alarm lest he should wrest the crown
from her favourite son, Hardacanute, she herself had a hand
in the bloody deed. Earl Godwin met Alfred at Guildford,

but did not arrest him, nor interfere with his progress, and
it is not improbable that he secretly sympathized with his
attempt. But Alfred was shortly after taken by the servants
of Harold, his companions were killed, tortured, or mutilated,
and he himself was conveyed to Ely, where his eyes were
put out, and he soon afterwards died. Godwin has been
charged Avith this crime by later historians, but the evidence
is against his having had any share in it. Godwin was not
the minister of Harold, but of Hardacanute, and he had
opposed the election of Harold. Godwin probably saw that
before long the popular impatience of Hardacanute would
lead to the union of Wessex with the north of England under
the sceptre of Harold, and he may have feared that in this
event his prospects would not improve. Far safer for him to
have a Saxon prince his master in Wessex. His interest lay
in protecting and favouring Alfred, not in putting him out of
the way.
Next Wessex got tired of waiting
year, 1037, the people of
for and Harold was chosen king over all
Hardacanute,
England. Queen Emma was driven out of the land, and
took refuge with Baldwin of Flanders at Bruges. Harold
died in 1040, and was succeeded by Hardacanute. He
crossed at once to England with sixty Danish vessels, and
the first thing he did was to levy a heavy tax on the whole
land to pay his Danes. He then caused the body of his
half-brother Harold to be dug up, and thrown into a fen.
An accusation was then trumped up against Bishop Lyving
of Worcester and Earl Godwin of having caused the murder
of Alfred. Hardacanute deprived the bishop ; but Earl
 ;

-*

Oct. 13.] S. Edward the Confessor. 331

Godwin took oath of his innocence, and bought his exculpa-

tion at the price of a magnificent ship, manned by eighty
picked men, well armed.
Shortly after Hardacanute deprived Archbishop Elfric, to
whom he had given the bishopric of Worcester, and rein-
stated Lyving ; no doubt that the king
so that there seems
did not believe in Lyving's guilt Queen Emma returned to
England in 1040, and then her son Edward came over from
Normandy and lived at the Court of Hardacanute.
In the year 1042 Hardacanute died, and Edward was
almost unanimously elected king of the English in his room,
through the united influence and persuasion of Bishop Lyving
and Earl Godwn. Edward was anointed and crowned king
on Easter Day, 1042, at the age of forty. He was a mild,
pious, but feeble prince his heart, weaned from the world,
:

sought comfort in religion, and the cares of government were

a painful distraction to a mind musing on heavenly things.
From his infancy he had been addicted to prayer. He
assisted daily at the holy Sacrifice, visited churches and
monasteries with assiduity, and loved the converse of church-
men. He was modest in his comportment and sparing in
his words.
Earl Godwin became the king's chief adviser, and nearly
two years after his coronation, in Januar}^ 1045, Edward
married Godwin's daughter, Edith.
Ingulf of Croyland says " He married Editha, the daughter
:

of Earl Godwin, a lady of exquisite beauty, of exceeding

erudition, of exemplary conduct, of humble piety, and
throughout the whole of her hfe an unsullied virgin ; mild
and was not imbued with any of
retiring in character, she
the rude and barbarous manners of her father and brothers
true and honourable in mind, she excited the enmity of no
one ; so that she deserv^ed the eulogium of the well-known
verse, '
As the thorn the rose, so Godwin begat Editha.'

-*
.Jl *
332 Lives of the Saints [Oct. 13.

Many a time have I, when a boy on a visit to my father at

the king's court, beheld her, and often has she met me on
my return from school, and questioned me about Hterature
and my composition, and then, diverting the conversation,
as she much liked to do, from grammatical accuracy to the
trifling subtleties of logic, of which she was a perfect mistress,
when she had reduced me to silence by a cunning train of

argument, she has directed her attendant to present me with

three or four pieces of money, and then sent me to the royal
buttery, feasted me, and sent me oftV Unfortunately Ingulf
is His work is, if not a late forger)^ at all
not to be trusted.
events so amplified by a laterhand with fraudulent purpose,
as to be undeserving of confidence. His account of him-
self is full of anachronisms, consequently we can put no

trust in his statement that Edith was an unsullied maiden

to the day of her death. William of Malmesbury, writing in

1 142, just a century later than the reign of Edward, says :

" She was a woman whose bosom was the school of every
liberal art, though little skilled in earthly matters ; on seeing
her, if you were amazed at her emdition, you must absolutely
languish for the purity of her mind, and the beauty of her
person. Both in her husband's lifetime and afterwards,
she was not entirely free from suspicions of dishonour; but
when dying, in the time of King WiUiam, she voluntarily

satisfied the bystanders of her unimpaired chastity by an

oath. When she became his wife, the king acted towards
her most delicately, and knew her not. I have not been
able to discover whether he acted thus from dislike to her
family, or out of pure regard to chastity;^ yet it is most
notoriously affirmed that he never violated her purity."
As soon as Edward was crowned, accompanied by the

'
Roger of Wendover says : "Whether he acted thus from hatred of her father,
or from love of chastity,is uncertain but the presumption
; is strong that the pious
king was unwilling to beget successors of a traitor stock."

Ijl *
 -*

Oct. 13.]
S. Edward the Confessor. 333

three great earls, Godwin, Leofric, and Siward, he rode to

Gloucester, where his mother Emma was living. She had
not shown any love to him or his brother Alfred, but had
transferred her maternal affections to her children by Danish
Canute. Edward resented this, and his first act after his
coronation was to swoop down on her, *' and the king caused
all the lands which his mother possessed to be seized into

his own hands/' says the Saxon chronicle, '' and he took
from her all that she possessed in gold, and in silver, and in
things unspeakable, because she had before held it too
closely from him. And soon after, Stigand was deposed
from his bishopric, and all that he possessed was seized
into the king's hands, because he was nearest to his mother's
counsel, and she went just as he advised her, as people
thought." Florence of Worcester adds that he kindly
allowed her the necessaries of life, and " ordered her to

remain quiet."
Not long after, Edward banished Gunhilda, niece of
King Canute, with her two sons, probably because they
had opposed his election.
But if Edward was implacable against those who had not
been liberal towards him when he needed money, or who had
opposed his coming to the crown, he was ready enough to
favour those who had befriended him. In Normandy he
had contracted many friendships, and when he became King
of England these Normans swarmed about him, asking for
preferment. Edward good-naturedly gave them what they
wanted. He put a Norman monk into the bishopric of
London, and he gave that of Dorchester to another Nor-
man, named Ulf, a bad man, who, as the chronicles say,
" did nothing bishop-like."

This nominee of the king went to Rome for confirmation,

but Pope Leo " almost broke his staff," as the Saxon chronicle
says, because Ulf was so ignorant that he could scarcely read

-*
334 Lives of the Samts. [Oct.13.

the missal or breviary.But Ulf bribed those around the Pope

and secured the In 1050, Eadsig, Archbishop of
bishopric.
Canterbury, died, and the monks of Christ Church elected
to the vacant throne one Elfric, an Englishman. Earl God-
win urged the king to confirm the election, but he would not
hearken to his advice, or regard the rights of the electors,
but appointed to the archiepiscopal see his Norman favourite,
Robert, to whom
he had given the bishopric of London.
There had not been a foreigner archbishop of Canterbury,
perhaps not bishop of any see at since Theodore of
all,

Tarsus. And now, as if nobody in England

there were
good enough for any high place, these Normans were given
bishoprics and other high offices, and were generally set to
suck up the fat of the land. Even those who did not stay in
England to hold estates and offices, came over to see the
king, and to get presents from him. Archbishop Robert
especially was always foremost in mischief; he tried to set
the king against Earl Godwin and those of the English who
were about his person. The king's sister Godiva had married
Drogo, Count of Mantes, and her son Ralph had an earldom,
and other Normans large estates in the island, and they
erected strong castles on them after the Norman fashion,
oppressed the people and reduced them to vassalage. This
was very galling to the English, who could not endure
the feudal despotism which had been growing up in France,
and which was alien to their free institutions. Presently
there came a crash.
Godiva had lost her husband, the Count of Mantes, and
she married Eustace, Count of Boulogiie, who shortly after his
marriage came over, like other people, to see his brother-in-law,
and get from him estates or money. Then he set off on his way
home, laden ^\'ith presents. On reaching Dover he and his
retainers went to the house of one of the principal citizens,

and wanted to force their way in and lodge there uninvited,

 -»i<

Oct. ,3.] S. Edward the Confessor. 335

as conquerors might treat a subjugated people. The master

of the house refused to admit the haughty strangers, and a
skirmish took place between the Normans and the people of
Dover, who rushed to revenge their fellow-citizen, whom the
Normans had killed for refusing them hospitality.
If we may trust Roger of Wendover, " The earl and his
comrades in great wrath slew a number of men and women,
and trod their children under their horses' feet." In the
fight, about twenty people on each side were killed,^ but at
length Eustace and his men were driven out of the town.
They returned to the king, who was at Gloucester, and told
him their story. Edward was so incensed, that he ordered
Earl Godwin to march with troops at once to Dover, and
severely chastise the town for having insulted his Norman
brother-in-law. Godwin peremptorily refused to stain his
hands in blood for such a matter. He told the king that no
man in his earldom should be put arbitrarily to death without
a fair trial by jury, as instituted by King Alfred. French
vassals might submit to be chastised like curs at the ca-

price of their lords, but this free Englishmen would not

endure. If the men of Dover had committed a crime, let

their magistrates be brought to trial before the Witenagemot,

and tried fairly. This language ill pleased the king's French
favourites ; they represented to him that in their land a
sovereign prince, or noble, might chastise his vassals at will,

and was supreme judge of their conduct. And they incensed

him more and more against Godwin, whose freedom of
speech in defence of right had somewhat galled his spirit.
Godwin, finding that the king was set against him, as-
sembled with Earls Sweyn and Harold at Beverstone in
Gloucestershire, on the top of the Cotswolds near Tetbury.
Meanwhile the king sent to Siward, the Danish Earl ot
' Roger of Wendover says that eighty Normans were killed, but this is an
exaggeration.

->i\
^ *
336 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 13.

the Northumbrians, and to Leofric, Earl of the Mercians,

and to his nephew, the French Earl Ralph, and got together
an army. But the great bulk of the people flocked to Earl
Godwin, as the protector of their rights and liberties. Then,
as the king had done no justice. Earl Godwin demanded
that Edward should banish his Norman friends from their
earldoms, where they oppressed their subjects, and that the
earldoms should be given up to them. The king refused, as
his army was eager to attack Earl Godwin and his Anglo-
Saxons. But the great earl did not dare to bring matters to
a bloody conclusion, and it was agreed that the matter
should be referred to the Witenagemot. When the wise men
assembled, Godwin and his sons were summoned before
them. They declined to attend unless the king would
pledge his word that they should be allowed to come and go
safely, and would deliver hostages in pledge of his sincerity.
This the king refused to do, so Godwin and his sons would
not appear before the Witenagemot. The assembly there-
fore pronounced them contumacious and outlawed them.
So Earl Godwin and his wife Gytha, and their sons Sweyn,
Tostig, and Gurth, took refuge with Baldwin, Count of
Flanders, at Bruges.
It is probable that the pride and power of Godwin had
created jealousy and alarm. He was right in his demands,
and he took up arms in the defence of the right, but under-
neath all lay, or was thought to lie, ambition to advance his
own family. This may explain the conduct of the wise men
in outlawing him and his sons. Godwin's sons Sweyn and
Tostig and Gurth accompanied him to Bruges, but Harold
and Leofwin, his two other sons, went to Ireland, where they
were well received by Dermot, King of Leinster.
As soon as Godwin and his sons were disgraced and out-
lawed, King Edward turned on his wife Edith, the daughter
of Godwin, and treated her much as he had treated his

* ,j,
 -^

Oct. 13.] S. Edward the Co7ifessor. 337

mother. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says " Then put away :

the king the lady who had been consecrated his queen, and
caused to be taken from her which she possessed, in
all

land, and in gold, and and in all things, and de-

in silver,
livered her to his sister at Whervvall." At the same time
'

he expelled Sparhavoc, Bishop of London, and thrust upon

the diocese his Norman chaplain, William, The abbey of
Abingdon he gave to a Norman bishop, Rudolf. The
earldom of Somerset, Devon, Dorset, and Cornwall was
given by the king to a kinsman —probably another Norman
—named Odda.
As soon as Godwin was gone, Edward felt relieved of the
dictation Avhich interfered with his surrounding himself
with Normans. He was visited then by WiUiam, Duke of
Normandy, his cousin, and it was then that Edward made
to him the unfortunate promise which cost England her best
blood, and led to her conquest. William always based his
claim to the throne on a promise made him by King
Edward at this time. The crown of England was elective,
so that Edward could not leave it to whom he would, but
he was so imbued with French despotic notions which he
had imbibed in his youth in Normandy, that he may have
thought he could do so. And at this time he was full of
bitterness against Godwin and his sons, so that he probably
made the promise to William in the hopes of excluding
Godwin's family from the throne, and in his bigoted pre-
ference for Norman despotism over the freedom of English
institutions.
William and his companions received many gifts from
King Edward, with which they returned to Normandy.
In 1052 died the queen's mother, Emma, at Winchester,

and was buried beside her second husband, Canute. She

'
Florence of Worcester and Roger of Wendover say, "He sent her away igno
miniously, with one servant."

VOL. XI. 22
-*
 ;

^__ }f

338 Lives of the Saints. [oa. 13.

seems to have been a hard, selfish, and unscrupulous woman.

Scandalous stories were circulated about her intercourse
with Bishop Alwyn of Winchester, and she was put to the
ordeal by fire, but walked unharmed over red-hot plough-
shares. Such is the story told by historians like Brompton
(a.d. 198) and Knyghton (a.d. 1395), but the story is
1

imported from the legend of S. Kunegund (a.d. 1040), the

wife of Henry II. of Germany. No historian to whom much
credit is due records it.
Things did not prosper in England under Norman rule.
Griffith, King of North Wales, burst into Herefordshire and

harried the country as far as Leominster. Frequent

skirmishes took place and much blood was shed, the Welsh
generally proving victorious; the whole frontier was in a
condition of alarm and distress.
Meanwhile, Earl Godwin and his sons thought of coming
home again. They got the Marquis Baldwin, and Henry,
King of the French, to plead for them, but in vain ; the
Norman favourites of the king had and would not
his ear,
suffer him to hearken. Accordingly Godwin and his three
sons who werewith him in Flanders, sailed for England,
and simultaneously Harold and Leofwin came over from
Ireland with nine ships. King Edward sent a fleet to Sand-
Avich to watch for Godmn, under the Earls Ralph and Odda,

but a storm drove back the ships of Godwin. When he

sailed again, King Edward found that his English sailors
and soldiers would not fight under their Norman chiefs
against the English earl, and Godwin landed on the 14th
September, a.d. 1052, in London. The king made every
effort to collect an army. "But," says Florence of Worcester,
" as there were few men of any courage, either on the king's
or on Godwin's side, who were not Englishmen, nearly all

shrunk from fighting against their kinsfolk and countrymen

^ _ i.
Oct. 13.] S. Edward the Confessor. 339

so that the wiser sort on both sides interfered to restore

peace between the king and the earl, and both armies re-
ceived orders to lay down their arms. The next morning
the king held a council, and fully restored to their former
honours Godwin, and his wife, and all his sons. . . . The
king also took back with due honours Queen Edith, the
earl's daughter, and restored her to her former dignity. The
alliance being renewed and peace established, they promised
just law to all the people,and banished all the Normans
who had introduced unjust laws and given unrighteous judg-
ments, and in many things had influenced the king to the
disadvantage of his English subjects."
When the two French bishops, Robert of Canterbury and
Ulf of Dorchester, heard the decision of the Witenagemot,
they mounted their horses and galloped out of the east gate
of London, cutting down with their long Norman broad-
swords all who opposed them, till they got to the coast,
when they sailed away in a crazy ship, and never came back.
Bishop WilUam of London went away also, but he was re-
called, for he was a good and holy man, and the English
people bare no ill-will against him. Next morning the
Witenagemot met again, and Earl Godwin rose and made a
speech, and said that he and his sons were guiltless of the
charges raised against them and he was reinstated in his
;

earldom, and all his sons were taken back into favour with
the king.
Next year, 1053, at Easter, died Earl Godwin, whilst
feasting with the king. An idle story was invented concern-
ing his death, which has been reported by the Norman
chroniclers, who held him in peculiar detestation. According
to this tale, whilst Godwin was feasting with the king, the

cupbearer's foot slipped, and he would have fallen had he

not stayed himself up with the other foot. Then said Godwin,
 _ ^
340 Lives of the Saints. [Oct.13.

"So brother helpeth brother." "I had a brother once,"

said Edward; "he would have helped me hadst thou not
slain him."

Then said Godwin, " Many a time have I been charged

by thee with this murder of thy brother Alfred. Now I call

God to witness that I am innocent. If not, may this piece

of bread choke me." And he took a morsel of bread from

the table and put it in his mouth. It stuck in his throat and
he died.^
This malicious story rests on no foundation. The English
wept for Earl Godwin as for their friend and father, the de-
fender of their liberties, a true EngHshman at heart; but
they rejoiced that he had left a worthy son to walk in his
ways. For when Godwin died, Harold, his son, was made
Earl of the West Saxons, and from this time Harold became
the greatest man in the kingdom. He and King Edward
were very good friends, and Harold in fact governed the
kingdom, leaving the king ample leisure for his theolo-
gical musings and devotions. Edward was very fond of
hunting.
"There was one enjoyment in which he chiefly delighted,"

says William of Malmesbury, " which was, hunting with fleet

hounds, whose opening in the woods he used with pleasure
to encourage ; and again, with the pouncing of birds whose
nature it is to prey on their kindred species. In these
exercises, after hearing divine service in the morning, he
employed himself whole days. In other respects he was a
man by choice devoted to God, and lived the life of an angel
in the administration of his kingdom. To the poor and to
the stranger, more especially fo7'eigners, and men of religious
orders, he was kind in invitation, munificent in presents, and

'
The story is contradicted by the account of Florence of Worcester, who says that
the earl was taken ill at the banquet, and carried to the king's room, where he
lingered on for five days, and then died. He evidently was struck with apoplexy.

^ ^
 Oct. 13.]
S. Edward the Confessor. 341

constantly inciting the monks of his own country to imitate

their holiness. He was of a becoming stature, his beard and
hair milk-white, his countenance florid, fair throughout his
whole person, and his form of admirable proportion." Else-
where William of Malmesbury says of him " He was a man :

from the simplicity of manners little calculated to govern,

his

but devoted to God, and in consequence directed by Him.

For while he continued to reign there arose no popular
commotions which were not immediately quelled; no foreign
war, all was calm and peaceable both at home and abroad,
which is to be wondered at, because he conducted
the more
himself so mildly that he would not even utter a word of re-
proach to the meanest person. For when he had gone out
once hunting, and a countryman had upset the standings by
which the deer are driven into the toils, struck with noble
indignation he exclaimed, '
By God and His Mother ! I will

serve you just such a turn, if ever I Here

have the chance.'
was a noble mind, which forgot that he was a king, under
such circumstances, and could not think himself allowed to
injure a man even of the lowest condition." William of
Malmesbury rightly attributes the tranquillity and prosperity
of his reign to his having been under the control of master
minds Siward, Earl of Northumbria Leofric, Earl of Here-
: ;

ford and Harold, son of Godwin, Earl of the West Saxons,

;

" However indolent and unassuming he himself might be

esteemed, he had nobles capable of elevating him to the

highest pitch."
It will be hardly necessary to relate the political events of

the remaining years of King Edward's life, as whatsoever

was done in repelling and crushing the Welsh, and in fight-
ing the Scots, was done by his great Earls Harold and
Siward. He had no part in the wars and victories, and no
credit attaches to him for the breaking of the Welsh power,
or for the defeat of Macbeth.

^ _ ^
>J< >5<

342 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 13.

In 1055, as King Edward had no children, he sent an

embassy into Germany to the Emperor Henry III., and one
object of the embassy was to get the emperor to send into
Hungary for Edward the Ethehng, son of Edmund Ironside,
who was now the only representative of the old royal race.
King Edward was then aged fifty-two. In 1057 Edward the
Etheling came to England with his children, but did not
meet his uncle the king, for he died on his arrival in
England, and was buried in S. Paul's, leaving a son, Edgar,
a child.
King Edward remitted the tax called the Danegeld, which
had been imposed on the nation in 1000, and which was
money for bribing the Danes not to molest the English.
When Canute was king he continued the tax, and paid with
it his Danish fleet. It continued to be collected under

Hardacanute, and also under King Edward, though the

excuse for the tax was gone. But Edward saw this and
remitted it, to the great joy of the English. According to
the legend the king was taken into his treasury to see the
pile of gold at his disposal, collected under the name of

Danegeld, and he exclaimed that he saw a devil dancing on

top of the heap. He therefore ordered it to be dispersed
among the poor, and refused to have the tax again imposed
on the EngHsh.
During his exile in Normandy, S. Edward made a vow to
perform a pilgrimage to the tomb of the Apostles at Rome,
should God give him the throne of his father. When made
king he thought about fulfilling his vow, but when he pro-
pounded before the Witenagemot his intention of making
his pilgrimage, the council protested that it was impracticable,
and at last made the king understand that it was folly for
him to think of leaving the kingdom to shift for itself whilst
he was absent. Edward consented to refer the matter to
Leo IX., who then sat in the chair of S. Peter. Aelred,

i — 4<
^ .
^
Oct. 13.] ^- Edward the Confessor. 343

Archbishop of York, Heriman, Bishop of Winchester, and

two abbots were despatched to Rome on this errand. The
Pope dispensed with the vow on condition that Edward
should give to the poor the money which his journey would
have cost him, and also should build and endow a magni-
ficent abbey dedicated to S. Peter. King Edward having
received this brief, pitched on Westminster as the site of his
foundation. The year 1065 was a troubled one. The
Northumbrians were not content under the rule of Tostig,
their earl, son of Godwin, and brother of Harold. He was
a rough, stern governor, and he compassed his ends by un-
justifiable means. In 1064 a Northumbrian thane named
Cospatric had come to the Court of King Edward. Tostig
bore him some grudge, and he sent private intimation of his
wish to see him made away with to his sister, the learned
and pious Edith, the queen. Edith at once had him
murdered at Court, whilst the Christmas festivities were
being carried on. Tostig also murdered two thanes, Gamel,
Orm's son, and Ulf, Dolfin's son, in his own chamber at
York.
" Soon after the feast of S. Michael," says Florence of
Worcester, "the Northumbrian thanes Gamelbjorn, Dunstan
Athelneth's son, Glonicorn Hjardult's son, entered York
with two hundred soldiers, to avenge the execrable murder
of the noble Northumbrian thane, Cospatric, who was
treacherously killed by order of Queen Editha at the king's

Court on the fourth night of Christmas, for the sake of her

brother Tostig," as also for the murder of Gamel and Ulf.

Another cause of discontent was the " enormous taxes which
Tostig unjustly levied throughout the whole of Northum-
bria." The rising became general throughout the north ;

the men of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire

joined them, and marched to Northampton. There Harold
went to meet them, and held a great meeting. King Edward
^
^
I 344 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 13.

sent, charging the Northumbrians to leave off their rebellion.

They in return demanded that Earl Harold should lay their

complaints personally before him, and should demand the
banishment of Tostig from the king's presence and from the
kingdom, otherwise they said they would fight. Harold
went to the king with their message, on which Tostig
charged his brother most unjustly with having set on the
Northumbrians to make these accusations against him. No-
thing could be more unlikely, as Harold had no kind of
motive for doing so; and Harold indignantly repudiated the
charge. But though Harold had no motive to stir up the
Northumbrians to rebellion, he had an obvious motive not
to push them A civil war between the north
to extremities.

and south of England would be most disastrous to the whole

nation, and rather than have that, he would consent to their
just demands, and sacrifice his brother. Whilst he was with
the king, the Northumbrians gave earnest of their intentions
by plundering Northamptonshire, burning houses and com,
and carrying off hundreds of captives. Harold met them
again at Oxford, which the Northumbrian army had now
reached. He tried to persuade them to take Tostig back,
but they would not hearken. So Morkere, son of Earl Alfgar,
was made their earl, and Tostig was outlawed and banished.
King Edward was very angry at having to part with his
favourite, and at not being allowed to chastise his enemies.
But Earl Harold knew that it must be so, and the king had
nothing left but to pray that God might punish them, and
whether through his prayers or not, certainly the Northum-
brians suffered evil enough during the ensuing years.
In 1066, at Christmas, King Edward held his Court at
Westminster, and on Holy Innocents' Day caused the abbey
he had erected to be dedicated with great pomp to the
Prince of the Apostles. But both before and during the
solemn festival of the dedication he was ill. As his illness

* —
"^ "^
CD

r-H
Tj OJ-t^

>-< Q, c3 03

"•8:3
 -^

Oct. 13.]
•5*- Edward the Confessor. 345

increased he took to his bed, when, after lying two days

speechless, and apparently lifeless, he revived on the third
day, and fetching a deep sigh, exclaimed, "Almighty God,
if it be not an illusion, but a true vision which I have be-
held, grant me strength to tell it to those who are by ; but if

on the other hand it be false, I pray Thee withhold from me

the power of telling it." After this prayer he said :
" I saw
just now standing by me two monks whom I had seen in
Normandy in my youth, and knew to have lived most
religiously, and died most Christianly. These men assured
me me with a message from God, and
that they were sent to
proceeded as follows Forasmuch as the princes, dukes,
:
'

bishops, and abbots of England are not the servants of God

but of the devil, therefore God will within a year and a day
deliver this kingdom into the hand of the enemy and this ;

land shall be wholly overrun with demons.' On my saying

that I would declare this to the people that they might
repent, '
It will be to no purpose,' they replied, 'for they will
not repent, nor will God have mercy upon them.' '
But when
may we hope for a remission of such dire calamities?' I
asked. '
When,' they replied, '
a green tree shall be cut
down and away from the roots, and
the head carried far
after this they of their own accord
unite and blossom and
'"
bear fruit, then may a remission of these evils be hoped for.'
Roger of Wendover appends this remark: "The English
afterwards proved the truth of this prophecy for England ;

truly became the dwelling of foreigners and felt the yoke of

strangers, none of her dukes, or prelates, or abbots being
English, nor was there any hope of ending this misery."
Roger of Wendover wrote in 1235 ; he took his story from
William of Malmesbury, who wrote in 1142.
The no doubt, invented after the Norman Con-
story was,
quest, when popular delusion had exalted Edward into the
representative Saint and Patron of the English people.

^
*-

346 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 13.

There was not the slightest probability of his regarding a

Norman invasion as the overrunning of the country by de-
mons. He always favoured these insolent foreigners at the
expense of his own subjects.
King Edward died on the eve of the Epiphany, Thursday,
January 5, 1066, and was buried next day in the minster he
had built, and where his body still reposes.
He was the first English king to touch scrofulous swellings
and sores for the purpose of healing them. Many came to
him to be touched, and every one who asserted that he was
healed was rewarded with a gold medal. It was marvellous
how many succeeded in persuading the king that they were
healed, and thus securing the piece of gold.
The body of S. Edward reposes in a noble tomb in West-
minster Abbey.'

'
In compiling this Memoir, Mr. Freeman's " Norman Conquest," vols. i. and ii.,

has heen consulted.

^'
 —

-^

Oct. 14.]
^- Callixtus. 347

October 14.

S. Callixtus, Pope, M. at Rome; a.d. 222.

SS. FORTUNATA, V., AND HER BROTHERS, MM. at CcBSaVC,
Palestine ; a.d. 303.
S. Gaudentius, B.M. at Rimini in Italy; a.d. 355.
S. CcELESTlus, B. o/Metz; beginning of A,th cent.
S. DoNATiAN, B. o/R/ieims; end 0/ 4th cent.
S. FoRTUNATUS, B. of Todi ill Uiubria; a.d. 537,
S. Manechild, V. at Chalons ; 6th cent.
S. RusTicus, B. of Treves ; circ. a.d. 574.

S. Angadrisma, V. Abss. at Beaiivais ; circ. a.d. 695.

S. BuRCHARD, B. of Wiirzburg; a.d. 754.
S. CosMAS, B. of Majuina in Palestine ; a.d. 780,
S. Dominic Loricatus, C. at San Severitio; a.d. 1060.

S. CALLIXTUS, POPE M.
(a.d. 222.)

[The ancient Kalendars of Fronto and Leo Allatius, the Martyrology

of Jerome, in some copies on Oct. 12, in others on Oct. 14. Bede,
Usuardus, Ado, Wandelbert, Roman Martyrology. Authorities :

Mention by Eusebius, but especially the "Refutation of Heresies," attri-

buted to S. Hippolytus, B. of Portus. The Acts of the Martyrdom of
S. Callixtus are not trustworthy.]

NFORTUNATELY we have an account of the

life of S. Callixtus from one side only, from the
pen of a zealous antagonist, probably S. Hippoly-
tus, Bishop of Portus.

Pope S. Zephyrinus, who sat in the throne of S. Peter

from A.D. 202 to A.D. 219, was a pious but unlearned and
feeble-minded pontiff, desirous of doing what was right, and
of upholding orthodox doctrine, but profoundly ignorant of
theology, and therefore embracing adverse tenets with all the
zeal of which an irresolute mind was capable. He was at
one time inclined to favour Noetianism, at another Sabel-

-^
*-

34^ Lives of the Saints. [Ocui.v

lianism. He fell after a while under the control of a master

mind, the able Callixtus. S. Hippolytus vigorously and in-
dignantly opposed Zephyrinus when he proclaimed, " I
acknowledge one God, Jesus Christ, and none beside Him,
that was born and suffered."
When Zephyrinus died, Callixtus aspired to succeed him,
and his canvassing proved successful. Callixtus had been
the slave of the wealthy Carpophorus, a Christian in the house-
hold of the emperor ; he had been set up by his master as
manager of a bank in the quarter of Rome called the Piscina
Publica. The Christian brethren and widows, on the credit
name of Carpophorus, deposited their savings in this
of the
bank of Callixtus. He squandered the money on his o'vvn
pleasures, and was called to account, fled, embarked on
board a ship at Ostia, was pursued by his master, threw
himself into the sea, was rescued, brought back to Rome, tried,
and sentenced to hard labour on the treadmill. The merciful
Carpophorus, says S. Hippolytus, cared not so much for his
own poor widows and he released
losses as for those of the ;

Callixtus on the pretext of collecting moneys, which the

prisoner assured him were due still, and which, if paid in,
would reduce the sum for which the bank had failed.
Callixtus had had dealings with the Jews, and they owed
him money, or he pretended that they did. He went into
the synagogue one Saturday, and disturbed the service by
his clamours for the money. The Jews beat him, and drew
him before Fuscianus, prefect of the city, and brought
against him the charge of having troubled their religious
rites. Carpophorus, hearing that his slave was again in
trouble, appeared before the magistrate, and deposed, " Put
no confidence in the words of this fellow he has squandered
;

large sums of money I had entrusted to him he is no ;

Christian, but he is seeking occasion of death." The Jews

insisted on the law being put in effect, and Callixtus was

*-
 -*

Oct. 14.] •S. Callixtus. 349

scourged ignominiously, and transported to the mines of

Sardinia.
Marcia, the concubine of the Emperor Commodus, was
favourable to the Christians ; Pope Victor used her influence
with the emperor to obtain the release of his exiled brethren,
and the confessors in the mines were restored to liberty, and
returned to Rome. A list of the confessors had been sup-
pliedby the Pope. The name of CaUixtus was naturally
enough not on the list, but when Hyacinthus, the eunuch
charged with releasing the captives from the Sardinian mines,
executed his office, Calhxtus persuaded him to liberate him
also, assuring him that his name was omitted by oversight.
He accordingly returned to Rome ; Victor, though distressed
at the affair, was too merciful to expose the fraud, and
Callixtus was sent to Antium with a monthly allowance for
his maintenance. There he remained nine or ten years, till re-

calledby Zephyrinus, the new pope, who placed him over the
cemetery which has since borne his name. Callixtus by degrees
acquired complete power over the feeble mind of Zephyrinus.
" Zephyrinus did not at first perceive the knavery
(iravovpYia) of the fellow, but he found it out at last, as
I shall relate presently," continues S. Hippolytus. " Callix-
tus persuaded him to assert publicly that he recognized but
one God, Jesus Christ, and that none but He had been
begotten and had suffered but, as he sometimes added, It
;

was not the Father who died, but the Son, there rose inter-
minable divisions among the people. When I heard these
opinions, far from adhering to them, I refuted them vehe-
mently, and fought for the truth. But as all, except myself,
flattered his hypocrisy, Callixtus, carried away by rage, called
me a ditheist (an adorer of two Gods), and vomited upon
me all the venom that was in his breast."
Having attained the papacy, the first act of Callixtus was
to drive Sabellius from the communion of the Church.

*i<
*-

350 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 14.

" This Callixtus," continues the author of the " Refutation

of Heresies," " was an impostor, a man capable of doing any-
thing, and in a short while he succeeded in deceiving a great
many people. With a heart full of venom, and with no up-
rightness of spirit, he maintained a certain external respect
for the truth. Pressed by the calumny he had brought
against me of having professed ditheism, and in order to
reply to Sabellius, who reproached him incessantly with
having altered the primitive faith, he invented a new heresy:
he said that the Word was Son only in name, as was also the
Father, but that in reality the Father and the Son were only
one indivisible Spirit, and that the Father was one and the
same as the Son, and that there was no distinction between
them ; that all was pervaded by the divine Spirit, whether
in heaven or in earth, and that the Spirit incarnate in the
womb of the Virgin was not different from the Father, but
was but one and the same with Him; and that this is what
was meant by the words, Believe you not that I am in my
'

Father, and my Father in Me ?' He added, that the visible

part of Christ, the manhood, was the Son, and that the
Spirit in the bosom of the Son was the Father. In verity,' '

said he, I will never recognize two Gods, a Father and a

'

Son, but only one God. The Father having descended into
the Son, deified the flesh which He assumed, and uniting
with Him formed but one being, who is called both Father
and Son, but who is nevertheless but one God ; this God
forming but one person cannot be two. Thence it follows
that the Father suffered with the Son.' He has esta-
blished a school against the Church, for teaching his doctrine,
and he, first of all has thought to enlist human passions on
his side by promising remission of sins to Any one forming
all.

a connection A\dth another and calling himself a Christian, if

he commit a fault, has only to pass into the school of Callix-

tus, where nothing is thought of it. Thus, charmed by his

*-
 -^

Oct. 14.] •^- Callixtus. 351

doctrine, a crowd of people, overwhelmed with remorse, and

guilty of all kinds of heresies, some excommunicated by our-
selves after solemn judgment, have joined his partisans and
filled his school. He was the first to lay down the principle
that a bishop must not be deposed for his guilty conduct,
even though he may have merited death. Under him there
have introduced themselves among the clergy, bishops,
priests,and deacons who have contracted two or three
marriages. And even if some member of the clergy marries
he maintains him in his dignity, as if he had committed no
fault If there are women not married who are
oppressed by carnal and who refuse to take husbands
lusts,

among men of rank, he authorizes them to take some one of

an inferior rank whom they may choose, be he free or slave,
and to regard as legitimate this union which is forbidden by
the law. Consequently women who call themselves the
Faithful have begun to lace tight and use drugs to procure
abortion, not wishing to bear children to a slave or man of
low estate, when they are highborn and rich. See to what
an excess of impiety this perverse man has fallen, who
teaches at once adultery and murder."
In all this, we cannot trust the angry adversary of Callix-
tus. He reveals to us the existence of two parties in Rome,
one indulgent, the other austere. Some declarations of Pope
Callixtus, or more probably of Zephyrinus acting under the
influence of Callixtus, on the connection of the sexes, had
already excited the indignation of Tertullian in Africa,
hardened into Montanism. " The Bishop of Bishops," he
wrote, " has promulgated an edict that he would remit to
penitents even the sins of adultery and fornication. This
licence to lust is issued in the stronghold of all wicked and
shameless lusts." ^

Callixtus is said to have instituted the Ember seasons.

' De Pudicitia.

-'fb
*-

152 Lives of the Saints. [o^t. 14.

There is no evidence that he received martyrdom. Hippoly-

tus,although a contemporary, probably wrote his book after
the death of Callixtus, for he speaks of his school as " still
subsisting ;" and he derides the title of martyr given to him,
saying that his martyrdom was obtained by his having to
appear before the magistrates for his crimes before he became
pope. " He confessed the faith indeed when Fuscianus was
prefect of Rome, and this is the sort of martyrdom he got."
Then he relates how he made a disturbance in the synagogue
and was banished to the mines.
It must be remembered that we have only the invective

of S. Hippolytus on which to construct the history of the life

of S. CalHxtus. This is so violent that we may conclude it

is much exaggerated. Theological animosity embittered his

views of the character of the Pope whose suffragan he was.
It seems hardly possible that the electors of Rome should
have chosen as their bishop a man who was a convicted
swindler. The violence of the author of the " Refutation of
all Heresies " was eHcited by the ease with which sinners
were pardoned by Callixtus. The Pope may have seen that
the borders of the Church were extending. If she were to
be, as she said she was, the Ark of Noah, containing clean
and unclean beasts, or the field full of tares as well as wheat,
then it was impossible any longer to maintain the severity of
discipline which had been observed in the primitive Church.
If the Catholic Church must remain a collection of saints
on earth, then she could only be a small community. If,
on the other hand, she was to embrace all the sons of Adam,
then she must relax her austere. discipline to meet the needs
of the feeble and the fallen. Callixtus adopted the true
view of the vocation of the Church, but his doing so aroused
the opposition of a Puritan party, the most advanced mem-
bers of which took refuge in Montanism.
The rehcs of S. Callixtus are in S. Maria beyond the

^-
Oct 14.
 ;

-^

Oct. 14] S. Fortunatus. 353

Tiber, at Rome, some bones at Fulda, others at Cysoing,

near Lisle ; others at S. Michel on the Meuse, near Verdun
a head in the church of S. Sebastian at Rome ; an arm in S.
Chrysogonus ; another arm at S. Maria in Cosmedin ;
part
of an arm in SS. Sergius and Bacchus; and many other
bones in other churches of Rome. A head at Valentia, a
jawbone at Cologne, part of a head at Prague, &c.

S. FORTUNATUS, B. OF TODI.
(a.d. 537.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authority: — Gregoiy the Great, in his "Dia-

logues of Miracles," lib. i. c. lo.]

Fortunatus, Bishop of Todi, in Italy, was popularly re-

ported to have performed many miracles. A gentleman had
a horse which was so wild that he could not mount it. He
led it to the bishop, who made the sign of the cross over it,

and tamed it.

The Goths carried off two little boys of the town. For-
tunatus sent for their chief and begged him to restore the
children to their parents. He refused. Next day the chief
was riding through Todi, when his horse slipped on the pave-
ment and fell, and threw him down. He thought his leg was
broken, and this in punishment for having refused the re-
quest of the bishop. He sent to him at once, promising to
restore the two boys. Fortunatus blessed water, and sent it

by his deacon, who sprinkled the leg of the Goth with it,
and the man got up, and though he found his leg a Httle
stiff, to his great delight satisfied himself that no bones were

broken.

VOL. XI. 23
-*
 —

354 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 14,

S. BURCHARD, B. OF WURZBURG.
(a.d. 754.)

[Roman and German Mart5rrologies. Authorities Two Lives, one

:

by an anonymous writer, the other by Egilward, who wrote at the end

of the loth cent. As the anonymous writer does not mention the
translation of the relics of S. Burchard in 986, he must have written in
the earlier part of the 10th cent.]

S. Burchard was a native of Wessex, and probably a

kinsman of S. Boniface. He led a monastic life from early
and was summoned by
3^outh, S. Boniface to assist him in
Germany in 725. He was then He made
in priest's orders.
two expeditions to Rome, once company with S. Boniface.
in
He was ordained Bishop of Wiirzburg by Pope Zacharias in
741, and subscribed the decrees of the Council of Leptines
in 742. He built many churches in his diocese, and trans-
lated the relics of his predecessor, the martyr Killian.
When advanced in age he resigned the see into the hands
his disciple Megingaud, and retired to Homburg, a castle,
whose ruins may still be seen, on a height above the Maine,
near where the Saale flows into it, and there he died. His
body was translated to Wiirzburg, where it now reposes.

S. COSMAS, B.

(a.d. 780.)

[Greek Mensea and Menology.]

S. CosMAS of Jerusalem holds the second place among

Greek ecclesiastical poets. Left an orphan at an early age,
he was adopted by the father of S. John Damascene and ;

the two foster-brothers were bound together by a friendship

or.t. 14.] S. Cosmas. 355

which lasted through Hfe. They excited each other to

hymnology, and assisted, corrected, and polished each
other's compositions.
Cosmas, like his friend, became a monk of S. Sabbas,
and against his will was consecrated Bishop of Majuma,
the port of Gaza, in 734, by John, Patriarch of Jerusalem,
the same who ordained Damascene priest.

In the office for the saint in the Greek Church for

this day is the following testimony to his powers as a

hymnographer :
—
" Put on a glad countenance, O Church,
and call thy children together, that thou mayest with them
rejoice for thy sublime preacher. For Cosmas, divine and
glorious, the spiritual harp, the divine lyre, calls all to
the mystic table, laying before us mellifluous and divinely
resounding melodies. . . . O Blessed one ! like a trumpet
thou proclaimest the passion and miracles of Christ, and
singest the sleep of the Immaculate Mother; thou hast
rejoiced all, O Cosmas, by the sweet and soft music of thy
words."

" Where perfect sweetness dwells, is Cosmas gone;

But his sweet lays to cheer the Church live on,"

says the stichos prefixed to his life.

His compositions are tolerably numerous, and he seems

to have taken a pleasure in competing with S. John
Damascene, as on the Nativity, the Epiphany, and the
Transfiguration, where the canons of both are given. He
is the most learned of the Greek Church-poets; and his
fondness for types, boldness in their application, and
love of aggregating them, made him the Oriental Adam
of S. Victor. It is partly owing to a compressed fulness
of meaning, very uncommon in the Greek ecclesiastical
poets, partly to the unusual harshness and contraction of
^ ^
356 Lives of the Saints. [Oct. 14.

his phrases, that he is the hardest of ecclesiastical bards

to comprehend.^
He probably died in a.d. 780, but the date cannot be
fixed with certainty.

1 Dr. Neale, "Hymns of the Eastern Church."

END OF VOL. XL

L'rinted by Ballantyne, Hanson &' Ca

Edinburgh Is' London

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